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A tourist is suspected of blackmailing several five-star operators with  a glass-in-food scheme; at least one had paid him before he was caught

Details have emerged concerning the arrest of a 'brazen' tourist who demanded hush money  from  luxury hotels after claiming he had been served food mixed with glass.

Police arrested the unidentified man on Friday in an undercover operation.

The ruse had already netted him US$2,500 and he was trying to cash in on it again.

Officers arrested the  tourist  as he picked up a $30,750 cheque from the  Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, a police spokeswoman  said.

He is also suspected of blackmailing  five-star hotels  including the Ritz-Carlton, the Grand Hyatt and one other, unnamed, luxury complex over the past six months with  the glass-in-food claim.

Detectives yesterday told  how the  scam  was carried out and warned hotels to be on the alert.

'He would go into a restaurant, cut the inside of his gums with some glass and complain to staff about glass fragments in his food,' an officer said.

'Then he would go to hospital where he would get a medical certificate showing his mouth had been cut with broken glass, before demanding hush money from the hotel.

'Often he claimed he would expose the case to the press if the hotel did not pay up.

'The luxury hotel operators,  fearful of bad publicity and the possible impact  on their business, would feel compelled to dish out significant amounts of money to keep it quiet.

'He was so brazen he even tried to pull the same sting twice in one day, one on Hong Kong island and the other in Kowloon.'

The officer said the luxury hotels became aware of the scam through a security notification system operating between members of the Hong Kong Hotel Association.

They notified police, who set up the counter-operation.

One of the hotels had already paid the fraudster US$2,500, the police spokeswoman  confirmed.

Lamey Chang,  a spokeswoman for The Peninsula, confirmed the arrest and the alleged blackmailing but refused to comment further. One Peninsula duty manager, who asked not to be named, said: 'We try to keep a very high standard with the quality of our food and beverage and this is an extremely rare case which has serious implications.'

Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Eva Lui confirmed the man had sought compensation from the hotel but denied paying him.

The Grand Hyatt declined to comment.

The man was  still being questioned last night by police, with charges including blackmail and deception expected to be laid tomorrow.

The scam follows a case in which a British engineer won $53,000 from Singapore Airlines by claiming that he had swallowed glass fragments in a drink served aboard a flight to Hong Kong on September 26, 2000.

Construction engineer Stephen Graham Olding, 48, was sentenced to four months in jail in March last year for falsifying a medical report after it emerged he had altered  his original medical note.



Hotels expose hush-money scam