A 68-year-old male cleaner has been the first person to see the inside of a court room following Hong Kong’s massive Christmas Eve cash spill in Wan Chai.
The frail old man, who earns just HKD7,400 a month, pleaded guilty to picking up HKD8,000 from the road when a security van spilled HKD52 million on Dec. 24 without noticing.
Chung handed HKD2,000 back to the police but admitted he kept HK6,000 and spent it on a mobile phone.
Magistrate Li Kwok-wai decided not to jail the cleaner today, and instead handed him a one-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.
According to the SCMP, Li said the frenzy, which saw dozens of Hongkongers walking off with huge bricks of cash, was lawless on a grand scale.
Of the HKD15.23 million that went missing, 46 people have so far returned HKD7.92 million after the police lodged an appeal.
Six people have been arrested and police are hunting for 10 others seen taking money on CCTV tapes.
HKD7.1 million is still missing.
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