HKSAR v. MA CHE HOU AND ANOTHER

DCCC 688/2023

[2024] HKDC 1847

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 688 OF 2023

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REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Charges

1.  There are two defendants (D1 and D2). Both plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud.

Facts

2.  The facts of the case have been set out in details in the summary prepared by the Prosecution.

3.  In gist, both defendants were part of a syndicate, which engaged in human trafficking. Several victims in Hong Kong were falsely told that there were rewarding jobs, businesses or opportunities overseas. They were lured to leave Hong Kong for Thailand or Cambodia and finally ended up in some sort of confinement near or in Myanmar. Those confinements were known as China City or KK Park. The victims were made to stay there and could not leave until they agreed to participate in some scam activities for the culprits there or until the victims’ family had paid ransoms for their release.

4.  Five such incidents have been identified.

Incident 1

5.  A 32-year-old man surnamed KWONG (PW1)  responded to a Facebook advertisement, which recruited people to work in a casino in Cambodia. He contacted D1 and provided his passport particulars to D1.

6.  PW1 was later arranged to fly out of Hong Kong and arrived at Cambodia on 12 January 2022. He was subsequently taken to China City in Sihanoukville. There he met D1.

7.  There were security guards in China City. PW1 was told he must stay there for at least three months. He was asked to participate in scam activities via WhatsApp and WeChat. He refused to do so and contacted his mother. As a result, the Hong Kong authorities were alerted on 18 January 2022. The next day, the Cambodia police rescued PW1 from China City.

8.  PW1 came back to Hong Kong on 7 February 2022. D1 was on the same flight with him.

9.  PW1 said that during his stay in China City, he was not assaulted or kept in false imprisonment.

Incident 2

10.  A 29-year-old man surnamed NG (PW3)  suffered from dissocial personality disorder, mild retardation and serious hearing impairment. He came to know online a girl known as “Fong” in mid-2021.

11.  In March 2022, Fong asked PW3 to borrow money from a finance company. His application was however rejected by the institution.

12.  Later, PW3 was asked by Fong to open a Mox Bank Account and to hand over the bank card to an unknown male. After some time, Fong told PW3 that she had deposited gambling winnings of HK$1 million into his account. She asked PW3 to go to Thailand to collect the money and then the money would be his. PW3 hesitated but finally agreed.

13.  PW3 had to renew his passport before he could travel. The syndicate assigned D2 to accompany PW3 to the Immigration Department for passport renewal. D2 paid the fees for PW3 and later accompanied PW3 to collect the passport on 12 July 2022. D2 took that passport to arrange for an air ticket for PW3 to go to Thailand the next day.

14.  On 13 July 2022, PW3 met up with D2 and went to the airport together. D2 gave the passport back to PW3 and stayed with him during check-in. He also called PW3 many times while PW3 was waiting for the flight.

15.  After arriving at Bangkok, PW3 was eventually transferred to a place, believed to be in Myanmar. There he was told he had been sold by his girl and he had to work there for six months and to earn 200,000 baht per month. When PW3 refused to follow the instruction, he was taken to an unknown place and stripped of his phone. He was handcuffed to a bed and assaulted.

16.  PW3 had been locked up in a cage for 4 days before being taken to another place, where he was further assaulted. He was then moved to another location. There he was again handcuffed, assaulted and even stunned with a stunning device.  PW3 had been so detained for 3-4 days before he was released.

17.  A few days later, PW3 was allowed to contact his family to arrange for funds to secure his release. Someone phoned PW3’s mother for that purpose.

18.  At the end of July 2022, PW3’s sister paid a total of HK$35,530.81 via Alipay to a certain account. PW3 was then sent back to Thailand.

19.  On 16 August 2022, PW3 came back to Hong Kong. He had multiple healed wounds on his body and limbs.

Incident 3

20.  In July 2022, a 25-year-old man surnamed LUNG (PW6)  responded to a Facebook advertisement, which recruited people to purchase luxury handbags in Thailand for resale in Hong Kong.

21.  In early August 2022, someone called “James” contacted PW6 and arranged for the latter to fly to Thailand on 5 August 2022.

22.  After PW6 had arrived in Bangkok, he and a few others were taken to KK Park in Myanmar. A mainlander nicknamed “Elephant” took away PW6’s passport and mobile phone. He said he had bought PW6 for US$20,000. PW6 was instructed to carry out online scams on others but he never succeeded in doing so.

23.  On 6 August 2022, PW6 managed to contact his girlfriend. The lady made a report to the Hong Kong Police.

24.  On 20 August 2022, “Elephant” told PW6 that he could leave KK Park. A week later, PW6 was given back his passport. He was taken back to Thailand and was allowed to leave.

25.  PW6 returned to Hong Kong on 28 August 2022.

26.  PW6 said that during his stay in KK Park, he was not subjected to violence or ill-treatment.

Incident 4

27.  In July 2022, a 28-year-old man surnamed SO (PW8)  responded to a Telegram advertisement, which recruited people to purchase luxury watches in Thailand for resale in Hong Kong. A person called “Ah Ming” contacted PW8 and arranged for the latter to travel to Bangkok on 11 August 2022.

28.  After PW 8 had arrived at Bangkok, he was taken to KK Park in Myanmar. There he was told that he had been sold and had to pay a ransom of US$20,000, or he had to work in KK Park for a year.

29.  PW 8 contacted his friends. When he later told a Chinese man that he had not been able to raise the fund, he was snapped twice.

30.  After his girlfriend managed to pay a ransom of HK$75,000 in the form of USDT (a cryptocurrency), PW8 was released on 24 August 2022.

31.  PW8 returned to Hong Kong two days later.

32.  Of the 9,527.86 USDT paid, 8,127.88 units were transferred to a cryptocurrency wallet. The money went to a Binance account registered in D1’s name. That amount of cryptocurrency was then sold and the proceeds HK$63,422.58 finally went to D1’s HSBC account on 18 August 2022.

Incident 5

33.  In June 2021, a 23-year-old man surnamed CHAN (PW10)  came to know D2. D2 told PW10 there was a quick way to earn money, which was to set up a company to take out personal loans. A few days later, D2 introduced PW10 to D1. D2 said D1 was his boss. D1 asked PW10 to set up a company to borrow money from some financial institutions. The sums were given to D1.

34.  In late August 2022, D1 told PW10 that the company had to execute an agreement with an overseas entity. He promised PW10 rewards and arranged for PW10 to go to Cambodia on 24 September 2021.

35.  After staying in a quarantine hotel at Phnom Penh for 14 days, PW10 was taken to China City in Sihanoukville. Someone there called “Ah Lam” asked him to participate in online scams but PW10 refused. He was not coerced further but told to wait.

36.  In the following weeks, D1 persuaded PW10 to practice online scams. He threatened PW10 with the safety of his and his family’s. PW10 finally succumbed to D1’s threat.

37.  In November 2021, D1 appeared at China City. He told PW10 to follow the instructions of “Chun Gor” there.

38.  On 18 August 2022, PW10’s mother made a report to the Hong Kong Police. Soon afterwards, PW10 was assaulted in China city. He was stripped of his mobile phone and taken to another location. Fortunately, the Cambodia police managed to find him in late August.

39.  PW10 finally returned to Hong Kong on 16 December 2022.

Arrest and investigation

D1

40.  D1 was arrested on 19 August 2022. Under caution, he said it was D2 who accompanied PW3 to the airport in Incident 2.

41.  Police checked D1’s mobile phone and found that he had extensive contact with someone called “小梦”. The two talked about PW3 in Incident 2, PW6 in Incident 3 and PW8 in Incident 4. There were photos of PW3 being chained to a bed. There were references of “snakehead” and D1 was told he need to “put on a show” to make “the client” willing to cross the river. D1 once asked 小梦 if PW6 would be “kidnapped”. The two also had discussions about arrests in Taiwan for human trafficking when D1 said there was no law criminalizing such conduct in Hong Kong. 小梦 told D1 that he would be paid after PW8 had crossed the river and been brought to the “park”.

42.  D1 in his further admission to the police said he had recruited six people to go to Cambodia to work but PW3 was not among them. He had introduced 4-6 people to work for “Sing Gor” and got US $4,000-$6,000. He last contacted Sing Gor in May 2022.

D2

43.  D2 was arrested on 21 August 2022. Under caution, he admitted what he had done in Incident 2. At first, he admitted he knew D1 was selling PW3 to Thailand. He said he had no choice as he owed D1 money. However, D2 later added that he only came to know about the selling from the news.

44.  D2 in his further admission to the police said he knew D1 was working with “snakeheads” and D1 had engaged in human trafficking in Cambodia in September 2021. He knew D1 had sold their former colleague PW10 to Cambodia to practise scams. However, he did not know PW3 was being sold to Thailand. D2 admitted he had posted recruitment advertisements on Facebook for D1 but he did not know they were related to human trafficking. D2 claimed he only realized the truth when he saw the news reports. He then confronted D1, who admitted it was human trafficking.

Bank record

45.  Bank record showed D1’s account transferred HK$1,000 to D2’s account on 4 July 2022.

Immigration record

46.  Immigration record shows D1 departed Hong Kong on 7 November 2021 and returned on 7 February 2022.

Criminal record

47.  D1 has previous convictions. They were in 2009 and 2010 and not similar to the present offence.

48.  D2 has no previous conviction.

Mitigation

D1

49.  Counsel says D1 is now aged 32. He is married and has two children (aged 2 and 4). Before his arrest, he was living with his wife, children and parents. He was educated up to Form Three and worked as a supervisor in a construction site.

50.  Counsel says D1 suffered a serious stroke in September 2022 during custody. Fortunately, he has recovered from that but lost much of his memory.

51.  A CSD medical report dated 17 September 2024 shows D1 is clinically stable though medication and follow-up are required.

52.  Counsel confirms D1 has no life-threatening issues or daily living problems apart from impaired memory of the past.

53.  Counsel says D1 is remorseful and vows to turn a new leaf.

54.  Counsel agrees that D1 has previous convictions but points out that they were for dissimilar offences.

55.  Counsel recognizes there are no apt precedents for the present case. He however mentions two cases: HKSAR v Lau Chi Yui CACC 148/2004 and The Queen v Lui Sau Cheong CACC 95/1993.

56.  In the case of Lau Chi Yui, a 16 year-old girl was enticed to work in a karaoke in Japan but ended up being coerced into prostitution. Each of the defendants was sentenced after trial to 3 years of imprisonment.

57.  In the case of Lui Sau Cheong, a girl could not make repayment to some loan sharks. She was detained and forced into prostitution again to earn money for repayment. For the false imprisonment charge, the defendant was sentenced after trial to 4 years of imprisonment.

58.  Counsel says of the five victims in the present case, only PW10 had been detained for some months, the other four were only made to stay against their will for 10 odd to 30 odd days.

59.  Counsel also says only PW3, PW8 and PW10 were assaulted during their plight.

60.  Counsel agrees the whole case was orchestrated and involved international elements. However, it is still not the most serious of its kind.

61.  Counsel accepts D1’s role was not a minor one. Yet, he submits the starting point for D1 should not be more than five years’ imprisonment and a one-third discount should be given for his timely plea. 

62.  Counsel also asks the court to give D1 extra discount in the light of his health.

63.  Counsel submits mitigation letters written by D1’s family members. All plead leniency for D1.

D2

64.  Counsel says D2 only played a limited role in one of the five incidents, i.e., Incident 2. He merely assisted PW3 to renew his passport and to accompany him to the airport. D2 did not know what happened to PW3 in Thailand.

65.  Counsel says D2 did not clearly know it was human trafficking though he realized there was some kind of fraud going on in relation to PW3. He only learnt PW3 was sold after reading the news and seeking clarification from D1.

66.  Counsel says there are no direct authorities on sentence. He also refers to HKSAR v Lau Chi Yui CACC 148/2004 (see para. 56 above).

67.  Counsel submits the present case is not the most serious of its type and D2 has no previous record. The starting point for D2 should be lower than 3 years’ imprisonment.

68.  Counsel says D2 has been in custody for more than two years since arrest. He is remorseful and prepared to lead to a new life. He chooses to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity and thus should be entitled to the usual one-third discount.

Sentence

69.  This is a very nasty case of human trafficking. Five victims were lured out of HK. When they arrived at Thailand or Cambodia, they were forced to stay in some confinement. They could not leave until they agreed to participate in scam activities or until their family had paid ransoms for their release. In the course of their stay, some victims were subjected to threat and violence. PW3, who was an under-privileged person due to disabilities, was ill-treated most.

70.  Fortunately, all five managed to return to Hong Kong after their ordeal. But their trauma probably would remain with them for quite some time, particularly in the case of PW3.

71.  The present case may not be the worst of its type; there are certainly cases of more victims and more inhuman treatments. However, the present case is one of the most abhorrent crimes one would come across in the District Court.

72.  Such crimes are orchestrated. They need planning and international illicit coordination. According to news reports that all may hear, these cases occur from time to time.

73.  The Court must send out a strong and clear message. That is, those involved in such crimes are to meet with severe punishment. The greater their role and involvement, the longer would be the prison term.

D1

74.  D1 no doubt played a very significant role in the human trafficking of all five victims. The starting point for him should be 7 years’ imprisonment.

75.  D1 is now clinically stable and his health was sufficiently attended to in the prison. There would not be discount for his health issues.

76.  After the usual one-third discount for timely plea, D1’s final sentence is 56 months’ imprisonment.

D2

77.  D2 was in the same criminal syndicate as D1. He played a lesser role. He was only involved in Incident 2 relating to PW3. However, D2 definitely knew from the circumstances that PW3 was a victim of human trafficking. Yet, he proceeded to carry out the hideous conspiracy against such a disabled person.

78.  Although D2 was only a cog of the wheel, the starting point for him should not be less than four and a half years. After a one-third discount for early plea, D2’s final sentence is 36 months’ imprisonment.