Octopus scammer pleads guilty to adding HK$434,350 to cards

A former Octopus card technician who added HK$434,350 of value to Octopus cards using a home-made machine built from stolen parts pleaded guilty to theft and forgery in District Court on Monday.

The court heard that the 27-year-old defendant Lau Chi-chiu stole 23 component parts of a value-adding machine from a workshop operated by MTR contractor Thales Transport & Security at Nam Cheong station between February 2010 and February 2012.

Using the stolen parts, Lau built himself a value-adding machine at his home in Yuen Long and fraudulently added HK$434,350 to 61 Octopus cards between October 2011 and March 2012.

The cards then were used to buy goods, mainly milk powder, which was then resold online.

Police began their investigation in December 2011 after the MTR Corp and the company Octopus Cards complained to them about suspicious “added-value” transactions, the first such instance since the Octopus system was launched in 1997.

Lau, an Institute of Vocational Education graduate, his wife, father, mother and sister were all arrested by police in March of last year, but only Lau was charged.