Leader of gang laid trap for friend
A 22-YEAR-OLD man lured a teenage friend into an apartment block to rob him, the District Court was told yesterday.
Lau Siu-yum was jailed for two years for robbery.
Lau denied robbing Manjit Singh of $5,000 worth of jewellery outside a seventh-floor flat in Lai Tak Tsuen, North Point, on August 2 last year.
Deputy Judge Duggan said Lau was the mastermind of the robbery. It was an aggravating factor for him to use the trust between himself and Mr Singh to carry out the offence.
During the trial in June, Lau's co-accused, Chan Kwok-wing, 18, and Ho Lung-wai, 17, jumped bail, but were re-arrested.
John Marray, prosecuting, said Mr Singh was lured to the building where Lau lived.
At the fifth floor, Chan took Mr Singh to the seventh floor where he was robbed by a masked man, later identified as Ho.
Ho reversed his plea of not guilty and testified for the prosecution when the trial resumed. Yesterday, he was sentenced to a term in a detention centre.
A fortnight ago, Chan Kwok-wing was jailed for nine months for the offence. He reversed his not guilty plea after the judge admitted his cautioned statement as evidence during the trial.
Yesterday, Rickie Chan, counsel for Lau, said his client had committed the offence to finance his drug habit.
Duncan Fung, for Ho, urged the court to consider that his client was a first-time offender who had admitted the offence.
