Luxury watch robber given 10-year term
A LORRY driver who embarked on a series of lift robberies, preying only on victims wearing expensive Rolex watches, was sentenced in the High Court yesterday to 10 years' jail.
Mr Justice Leong, although describing Wong Yuk-ming's robbery plan as ingenious, said: ''People in the street were entitled to be protected and not to become prey in robbery even though they were indiscreet enough to expose their gold watches,'' he said.
He was sure Wong would have had no hesitation in using force and violence if the victims resisted.
Wong, 25, had pleaded guilty to six counts of robbery and one of assault with intent to rob.
His co-defendant, Sze Man-ki, also 25, who had been jointly charged with four of the holdups, denied the offences.
He was found guilty of one offence after trial and sentenced to seven years' jail on Thursday.
Prosecutor Albert Wong told the court the robberies were committed between November 1991 and October last year.
Wong, either on his own, or with an accomplice and on one occasion, with Sze, picked their targets in the street.
They followed them as they entered lifts in various buildings, then robbed them.
During the robberies, $17,000 in cash and Rolex watches worth more than $500,000 were taken from the seven victims at knifepoint.
On October 28, last year, Wong and an accomplice attempted another robbery. But the two victims put up a struggle.
Wong and his partner were stabbed and had to be admitted to hospital.
One of the victims overpowered Wong and handed him to the police.
Wong's counsel, Andrew Raffell, asked the court to give his client full credit for his guilty plea.
