HONG KONG: A man, who bought a winning lottery ticket for a friend, then insisted the HK$38,000 Mark 6 lottery winnings were his to keep, will spend six months in prison.

Yu Tak-chak, 57, appeared in Tuen Mun Magistrate's Court and was found guilty of one count of theft yesterday.

In passing sentence, Deputy Magistrate Douglas Kwok said that the severe term was handed out because Yu failed to show any remorse for his crime.

Despite evidence presented in court, Yu denied he had taken the lottery winnings that belonged to his friend, Kwok said.

The court heard earlier that Yu, who was earning about HK$1,000 as a part-time security guard in addition to his HK$3,000 welfare payout, was a friend of the victim, a woman surnamed Chen.

Yu, Chen and a mutual female friend surnamed Tang had sat together having dim sum in a Tin Shui Wai restaurant on February 6. Tin Shui Wai is a low-income residential area in the New Territories.

Yu said he would visit the Hong Kong Jockey Club later to claim HK$205, from a horse racing bet. Chen and Tang each wrote two combinations of numbers on a dim sum menu and asked Yu to buy lottery tickets for them accordingly.

When they met again later in the day, Yu showed the tickets to Chen and Tang but didn't give them to them. On the following day, Chen learned one of her lottery combinations had won the HK$38,800 third prize in the Mark 6 lottery. Yu couldn't be reached by telephone. Attempts by the victim to contact him at his home proved futile. Chen called police after all attempts to contact Yu had failed.

Yu admitted to police that Chen had asked him to buy lottery tickets but claimed he didn't buy them because he was short of cash.

Records of the Hong Kong Jockey Club showed that the HK$38,800 has been already claimed.

The winning ticket had been purchased with a HK$205 payout on a horse racing ticket.

Tang's testimony backed up Chen's account. The dim sum menu with the lottery combinations also was submitted as evidence.

China Daily

(HK Edition 10/29/2009 page1)