From crime fighter to criminal: serial offender who stole HK$6.5 million in banking scam was 32-year veteran of Hong Kong police
- Chan Wing-kai had a litany of previous convictions and had promised a judge he would turn over a new leaf after being jailed in 2016
- But the 62-year-old returned to a life of crime just three months after getting out of prison
A former Hong Kong policeman who promised never to break the law again before he was jailed for burglary in 2016, went back on his word just three months after his release, this time stealing more than HK$6.5 million (US$830,973).
Chan Wing-kai, 62, had promised district judge Josiah Lam Wai-kuen that he would not be on the wrong side of the law again when he pleaded for leniency after stealing HK$70,000 from a restaurant safe on January 11, 2016.
By then, Chan had seven previous convictions that involved theft, dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice. Lam said he believed there was still time for Chan to start afresh and urged him to change his ways.
The man nodded and thanked the judge before he was taken away to serve 20 months behind bars. But he was back in the dock less than three years later.
The officer of 32 years pleaded guilty last Friday to two counts of theft and three of conspiracy to steal, an offence punishable by 10 years in prison. He was jailed for three years and 10 months on Monday.
His latest brush with the law began just three months after his release on January 13 last year, when he presented Jonathan Cheung Tsang-ping’s lost Hong Kong identity card at Citibank on Hoi Yuen Road in Kwun Tong.
He requested a reference letter on Cheung’s account and asked to change its PIN.
Believing Chan to be the account holder, the bank teller gave him a document that showed the opening date of Cheung’s account, and its balance.
A month later, on February 28, Chan approached a different branch of Citibank at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong and asked for an account number reminder card to be issued.
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But because the bank knew the identity card had been reported lost, its staff member immediately alerted the police, and Cheung.
Chan was arrested after Cheung’s son rushed to the scene and filmed the suspect, who left the bank before police arrived. The video was later given to police.
Subsequent investigations revealed that Chan had already successfully stolen HK$6.57 million from two other identity card holders, who kept their savings at Bank of East Asia and HSBC.
The District Court heard that Chan presented Jack Li’s lost identity card to the mobile network provider 3HK for a new SIM card to obtain his contact number, and learned his signature to beat the Bank of East Asia’s identity verification process.
He then went to different branches of the bank to withdraw Li’s HK$3 million time deposit in instalments on January 17 last year.
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Chan also used Johnson Wong Tak-yin’s lost identity card to instruct HSBC to take out an overdraft of HK$1.6 million, and transfer the sum, along with the HK$1.96 million in the victim’s current account, to settle a purchase of gold bars at Lao Fung Xiang Jewellery Shop in Mong Kok on February 14, 2018.
All three victims have since been compensated.
Under caution, Chan told investigators he had been acting on the instructions of two mainlanders he identified as “O Kee” and “Tin Jan”, because he was heavily in debt.
In mitigation, his defence counsel claimed the two mainlanders had threatened to burn his home and harm his family if he did not pay back the HK$300,000 debt he owed from gambling – a habit he picked up since he left the force.
Chan also claimed he had reflected on his actions during his remand and promised to stop gambling so he could start a new life.
But district judge Douglas Yau Tak-hong said gambling was no excuse, and described Chan as a persistent offender who had been promised a 10 per cent share for playing a significant role in a premeditated and well-planned scheme that compromised the city’s banking system.
