A senior police inspector with the Waterfront Division who was convicted of shoplifting clothing worth $11,690 from the Sogo department store was ordered yesterday to perform 80 hours of community service.
In sentencing Shadow Lam King-wah, 41, Eastern Court magistrate Julia Livesey said she rejected Lam's claim she had not intended to steal from the Causeway Bay store but had instead acted absent-mindedly after taking flu medicine.
Lam, who joined the police force in 1979, was suspended following her convictions on May 31 for two counts of theft.
The court heard Lam stole a leather jacket and a knitted jumper, together worth $7,945, from the in-store Aquascutum outlet in Sogo on December 29. She also stole a jumper worth $3,745 from the Burberry outlet adjacent to Aquascutum.
Lam was taken to a security room after the assistant manager of the Aquascutum shop discovered a leather jacket in the shop was missing, the court heard.
Lam pulled the leather jacket from under her jacket and a knitted jumper and a Burberry jumper from her handbag, the court heard.
