A gambler who broke a restraining order and bombarded his sister with more than 2,000 phone calls and 60 faxes demanding money was jailed for three months yesterday after a judge described him as a cancer that needed to be removed. In passing sentence, Mr Justice David Yam Yee-kwan said Li Chi-keung, 47, deliberately breached an injunction obtained by his sister, Li Sau-ying, in December. Ms Li was forced to take her brother to court after he drained $400,000 from her savings over a decade by begging for financial assistance. The Court of First Instance heard yesterday that despite Ms Li's injunction, her brother made 2,000 phone calls to her Wan Chai office and sent 60 faxes within one month of it being granted. The court was also told Ms Li gave her brother another $34,000 from November 20 and December 21, part of which was handed over after the injunction had been granted. When Li began stalking his sister at the office, she was forced to leave through the back door, the court was told. Mr Justice Yam said Li's actions not only affected his sister's kitchen-decoration business, they also affected her colleagues, who often had to field his phone calls. The judge expressed sympathy for the woman's plight, saying her brother was a cancer she had to remove. '[Ms Li] will feel pain, but in order to save her life, she has to do it,' he said. 'You can not keep taking care of someone who is very poor for such a long time.' Although Li argued in court that he never threatened his sister, the judge said he showed no sign of remorse and tried to sidestep responsibility for his actions. He pointed to Li's assertions that debt collectors had been behind the phone calls and faxes, and Li's use of his son, who he claimed was gravely ill on the mainland, to beg for leniency from the court. 'When a problem arises, Li just puts forward his family member as a shield,' Mr Justice Yam said. Ms Li was not in court yesterday.
