A HONG KONG student in Canada allegedly staged his own kidnapping so he could use the C$120,000 ransom money from his wealthy father to pay off gambling debts he owed to a Vietnamese gang.
Ip Chun, 22, appeared in a Toronto court charged with attempted fraud and public mischief, both of which carry jail sentences, after he allegedly tried to obtain C$120,000 (HK$672,000) from his father, a Western-based merchant.
Ip was released on bail. He is also being investigated for car thefts, which Canadian detectives believe he was forced into by the gang to which he owed money.
Ip was arrested after a four-day joint Canadian/Royal Hong Kong Police operation.
Superintendent Bob Youill, of Hong Kong's Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, said he believed Ip was going to use the ransom to pay off the interest on his huge debts.
Several well-organised ''gambling dens'' have been established in recent years in Toronto's Chinatown under the control of violent Vietnamese gangsters.
Ip apparently became hooked, and lost at least C$500,000 (HK$2.8 million) in the three years since he moved to study economics at Toronto University. Police said it was when he received a ''final demand'' from the loansharks that he planned his own abduction.