HONG KONG: A self-confessed shopping addict who fueled her addition by swindling over HK$720,000 dollars in a credit card and loan scam was sentenced to a year and a half in jail in court yesterday.

Downcast and distraught while sitting in the dock as her parents looked on, a bespectacled 31-year-old Yeung Mei-mi faced 11 counts of fraud and 13 counts of obtaining property by deception.

In passing sentence, District Court Deputy Judge Josiah Lam Wai-kuen said although Yeung suffered from an impulsive control disorder that contributed to her shopping addiction, "imprisonment is the only option."

"Her impairment does not mitigate but will lessen her jail time," he said, sparing her the maximum sentence of 36-months on each charge.

Yeung received a one third reduction in each of the sentences which will be served concurrently for pleading guilty. An additional six months was cut because of her mental condition.

In her sentencing submission, Yeung's defense lawyer Eleanor Cheng noted Yeung had paid back some HK$41,000. Lam rejected the small restitution as grounds for leniency. He pointed out that Yeung would be unable to make full restitution.

Cheng also said her client was attending out-patient psychiatric counselling sessions. Cheung said her client will "endeavor to serve the community and repay what she had taken."

Court was told Yeung had made several suicide attempts. According to medical reports, Yeung has serious psychiatric problems.

Evidence at the trial showed that Yeung was a regular customer at a high-end Central hair salon. She gave tips lavishly and later befriended Ng Tsz-yi and her boyfriend Tsang Kin-on, both working at the salon. Ng eventually introduced Yeung to her mother.

Yeung persuaded Ng to deposit HK$213,000 into her bank account on the pretext of helping to secure a Taiwan work visa so that Ng could accompany her on a business trip.

Later, Yeung responded to the Ng family's request for financial assistance, claiming she could arrange a HK$4 million loan.

Yeung told Ng's mother she needed to deposit HK$251,000 and authorize her use of their credit cards to secure the loan.

Within a space of three months during 2008, Yeung was able to con HK$728,854 out of the family. When the money vanished and Yeung was unable to repay, the family turned the matter over to police.

During her spending sprees, Leung racked up HK$97,400 in costs at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental and HK$162,000 in Lane Crawford gift vouchers.

In one case, Ng received a HK$20,000 tip from Yeung, Justice Lam pointed out in his sentencing.

Yeung arrived in the city in 1988 from Fujian province and studied at Belilios Public School before pursuing a degree at the University of California Los Angeles in 1998 where she allegedly developed her compulsive buying disorder.

The court heard Yeung had taken to the self-destructive behavior to please her boyfriend at the time with luxury gifts.

She filed for bankruptcy the same year she had targeted the Ng family after running up more than HK$6 million in debt.

(HK Edition 01/26/2010 page1)