A garage worker who blackmailed a call girl's customers on the telephone was yesterday jailed for five years.
Tong Kam-wai, 26, threatened to beat up his victims or tell their families they had visited the prostitute if they did not pay up.
He was caught after trying to blackmail an undercover policeman, the District Court heard.
'It is a feature of this case that menace was applied by you anonymously from the other end of the telephone,' Judge Donald Christie told Tong.
'In this kind of blackmail it is hard to identify the blackmailer. For that reason alone a deterrent sentence is called for.' Tong was convicted of six charges of blackmail and one of living off the earnings of prostitution. He had denied the charges.
The court heard he made threats to five of the woman's customers - aged 17 to 63 - including the policeman who posed as a client, between September and November last year.
Tong demanded sums between $1,000 and $8,000 in addition to fees for sexual services provided by the call girl, Kwong Yee-kiu, 26, prosecutor Hayson Tse Ka-shu said.
