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SCMP Reporter

Hong Kong's most famous gangster, 'Big Spender' Cheung Tze-keung, has won a place in the new Guinness Book of Records by demanding the world's biggest ransoms.

 But the normally-meticulous book contains two errors in its entry for Big Spender, getting both his ransom demand total and execution date wrong.

 The gangster demanded a total of more than $1.4 billion for the release of Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, son of Li Ka-shing, and Walter Kwok Ping-sheung of the Sun Hung Kai Properties conglomerate.

 Cheung was executed by a mainland firing squad on December 5, 1998, together with four accomplices. But The Guinness Book of Records wrongly records him as demanding US$127 million (HK$986 million) and being executed in November 1998.

 The book carries a photograph of him in front of the Higher People's Court in Guangzhou before he was sent to the execution ground.

 A highlighted brief history of his notoriety shares one-quarter of a page under the title 'criminals' in the 'fame' category.

 Cheung shares the limelight with the most-wanted Mafioso Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, the head of the Sicilian Mafia, who was tried and given a life sentence along with 23 other members of his gang at Caltanissetta, Italy, on September 26, 1997.

 But unlike other record-breakers who are issued with certificates to commemorate their success, criminal entries get no such recognition.

 Neil Hayes, a spokesman for Guinness World Records based in London, admitted it could not be ruled out that copycats might commit 'famous' crimes to earn a place in the book.

 Under normal procedure people attempting to break records have to provide evidence to win a place in the book.

 But a research team also helps to pick up other record-breaking incidents.

 'In the case of Cheung Tze-keung, our research team apparently picked it up from news reports,' said Mr Hayes.



Big Spender wins place in Guinness Book of Records