Arrest warrant for tutor accused of theft

A magistrate issued a warrant yesterday for the arrest of a woman who failed to appear in court over allegations that she stole from a family who had employed her as a tutor despite five attempts to summon her.

Grace Mak Kwan-sin, 29, has already been sentenced to community service for stealing goods worth HK$119,000 from Cheng Ju-wen and Chow Luen-fat. But the couple allege she stole property worth 10 times that and launched a private summons after police refused to prosecute her over the additional items.

The warrant was issued by magistrate Adriana Tse in Eastern Court more than two years after Mak - daughter of Mak Hoi-wah, a democracy activist and academic - was sentenced to 180 hours' community service on the original charge.

Cheng's lawyer, Manyi Tsang, told the court many attempts had been made to find Mak but to no avail. 'The police had made at least four to five times attempts to find her, but they still could not deliver the summonses to her.'

On December 5, 2007, Mak was caught on camera leaving the couple's flat in Garden Road, Central, with a Chanel dress, Chanel T-shirt, two Chanel handbags, a diamond necklace and a Van Cleef & Arpels chain worth a total of HK$119,000.

On April 14, 2008, Magistrate Winston Leung Wing-chung ordered Mak to perform 180 hours of community service. On the eve of sentencing, Cheng wrote to Leung claiming Mak had in fact taken goods 10 times the value submitted to the court, but Leung said he could deal with her only on the original charge.