One of three men accused of handling enough explosives to cause carnage in Hong Kong told a court yesterday how he became friends with 'Big Spender' Cheung Tze-keung.
Police secretly filmed Lau Cheuk-fan, 32, working with Cheung, two of Lau's elder brothers and the second accused - Wong Fung-kei, 44 - at an isolated high-security compound where 40 boxes of explosives were allegedly moved.
'We had different jobs to do at the time,' Lau told the Court of First Instance. 'My mission there was to fix a vehicle. While the others were loading the boxes, I was busy fixing the car.' The third accused, Chan Sum-yau, 47, owns an isolated village shack 30 minutes' drive from the compound. Police seized 820kg of ammonium nitrate, TNT, fuel oil and wood-chips from the shack at the border village of Ma Tso Lung on January 17 last year, the court has heard.
About 2,000 detonators and two reels of safety fuse were also found after Chan and Wong were pounced on by camouflage-clad police. Lau was arrested at his Sai Kung home.
All three have pleaded not guilty to possession of high explosives with intent to cause severe damage and injury.
Lau told the court he became close to Cheung after making trips to Macau with him at the request of his older brother, Lau Ting-fan.
Cheung was Lau Ting-fan's boss and a major 'client' of his brother's gambling activities in Macau. Lau Ting-fan therefore 'had to keep him happy' to keep the money rolling in.