A burglar hired a locksmith to break into his former employers' factory, stole two blank cheques and tried to cash one for $250,000 using forged signatures.
Ngan Chi-pui, 27, pleaded guilty in the District Court yesterday to burglary, criminal damage, forgery and using a false instrument.
The court heard Ngan, an employee of San Chung Die Casting Factory Limited until August 2000, paid a locksmith $700 to open the factory's iron gate and wooden door on March 20 this year.
Prosecutor Vinci Lam said Ngan had told the locksmith he worked at the Tsuen Wan factory, which was owned by Chu Wai-lee and her husband and had been left unattended that night.
Ngan took two blank cheques from a desk drawer.
He stamped them with the company chop and forged the owners' signatures.
