Hong Kong woman jailed for nearly 3 years over HK$3 million surgical mask scam on schoolmate
- Airport worker Sit Man-ying jailed for 33 months after she pleaded guilty to five counts of theft totalling HK$3,321,726
- District Court heard Sit had reached out to a schoolmate and claimed she had the means to source masks from Indonesia and Japan for sale
Sit Man-ying, 33, a customer service officer of Hong Kong Airport Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific Airways, was jailed for 33 months after she pleaded guilty on Monday to five counts of theft totalling HK$3,321,726. She denied five alternative counts of fraud, which were left on court file.
The District Court heard Sit had reached out to a schoolmate, Lam Hiu-ling, with whom she maintained loose contact, and claimed she had the means to source masks from Indonesia and Japan for sale.
Lam then contacted some potential buyers, including a friend and the Federation of Trade Unions, and placed five orders for 72,304 boxes of masks, from February 17 to 28, with deposits paid in cash.
At the time Hong Kong was grappling with its first wave of Covid-19, and the authorities had urged the public to be cautious and mindful of scams amid the frenzied buying of masks across the city.
