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SCMP Reporter

Lau Man-to is no ordinary burglar.
After breaking into his neighbour's room and taking his bank passbook, the debt-ridden 25-year-old later broke in a second time and replaced it.
In the meantime, the District Court was told yesterday, Lau had used an elaborate ruse to withdraw HK$27,000 from the account.
'It's most unusual that a burglar puts his stolen property back,' Deputy Judge David Dufton said. 
Lau, 25, a construction worker, pleaded guilty to burglary, knowingly misleading a police officer and two counts of theft. 
Dufton adjourned sentencing to September 27, calling for a background report and warning Lau he faced a jail term.
Prosecutor William Siu said that on May 10 Lau used a screwdriver to break into Ho Sum-chiu's room in the divided apartment in Tsuen Wan where they both rented space. 
He took the passbook, and obtained Ho's personal details from a tenancy agreement he found in the room.
Impersonating Ho, Lau went to a police station and said he had lost his wallet containing his identity card, an Octopus card and HK$200. 
The police issued a memo to him concerning the loss. He then went to a Bank of China branch on Sha Tsui Road, Tsuen Wan, and used the passbook and the memo to withdraw separate sums of HK$9,600 and HK$17,400.
He then used the same screwdriver to break into the room again and replace the passbook.
Later that day Ho tried to use his ATM card to access the account but the card was retained by the machine. 
He went home to check his passbook and discovered that someone had withdrawn the two sums.
He later identified his neighbour from the closed-circuit television footage taken at the police station when Lau was making the loss report.
Police arrested Lau on May 15. He admitted he had stolen from Ho because he was in debt. 
Dufton said that on the face of it, it looked as though Lau was well versed in crime, but he had a clear record.
In mitigation, lawyer Deca Lin said Lau earned HK$350 a day as a casual construction worker and had to support his wife, his mother and two young children. 
Lin said the starting point for a domestic burglary was three years, but Dufton said he had yet to determine the length of Lau's jail term.
Siu said the bank had already compensated Ho for his loss.




Burglar replaced bank book after account theft