Teenager sent to training center for gambling away grandmother's funeral grant
Updated: 2010-02-24 07:33
By Ming Yeung(HK Edition)
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HONG KONG: A local teenager who gambled away the HK$10,750 government grant given to him to bury his grandmother was sentenced to a detention at a training center yesterday.
Lai Chu, 19, had pleaded guilty to theft earlier. Instead of paying for the funeral, Lai went to Macao and lost the money through gambling.
Lai had lived with his grandmother for eight years after migrating to Hong Kong from the mainland in 2000. His grandmother died on August 5, 2008. Lai then applied for a burial grant at the Social Welfare Department (SWD) with the invoice and a price quotation issued by a funeral home agent. The payment was approved. The SWD transferred the money to Lai's bank account on August 14. Lai withdrew the money the following day and lost it all in Macao on August 16.
Without the burial grant, his grandmother's body remained in the morgue at North District Hospital for a year until the agent contacted the SWD and reported to the police. In July 2009, the SWD learned from the Immigration Department that Lai had traveled to Macao at 2 am on August 16, 2008, 11 days after his grandmother's death.
When he was arrested, Lai admitted losing the burial grant while gambling. The SWD then buried the young man's grandmother last August.
The offense was very serious, chief magistrate Andrew Ma Hon-cheung said. Ma denounced Lai's act as a great disrespect to his grandmother and observed that Lai did not give consideration to the care his grandmother had given him when she was alive.
Ma also said Lai should not have taken the offense lightly even though he was only 17 years old back then. Ma told the accused he expected him to be wise in making friends and to swear off gambling in the future. Lai promised to find a job and return the burial grant to the SWD when he finishes his sentencing in the training center.
Lai, who used to be a part-time construction worker, left school after Form 1. His grandmother had been living on comprehensive social security assistance. His parents are living on the mainland.
(HK Edition 02/24/2010 page1)