The owner of a Tsim Sha Tsui hotel appears in court today on three fraud charges over bank loans of HK$200 million. The Independent Commission Against Corruption will ask Eastern Court to transfer the case against Lau Hei-wing, 59, to the District Court. Lau is alleged to have falsely said the loans would be used to renovate his Kimberley Hotel.
Fifty-four mainland women face deportation or prosecution after being picked up in anti-vice operations by police and immigration officers on Wednesday. Raids on three hotels and brothels in Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui netted 43 of them, while 11 were nabbed in Tai Po and Sheung Shui. The women, aged 19 to 51, were in the city as tourists and were suspected of breaching their conditions of stay.
Crimes against retailers, including shoplifting, theft by employees and fraud by suppliers, cost the sector HK$4.89 billion last year. The total was the biggest in three years, according to a study.
