Singson, Filipino lawmaker, jailed

Filipino congressman Ronald Versoza Singson, 41, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Thursday after being arrested while in possession of 6.67 grams of cocaine at Hong Kong airport on July 11, 2010.

Singson, who also owns profitable businesses including Channel V, pleaded that he turned to drugs when exhibiting symptoms of depression.

Judge Joseph Yau Chi-lap said he believes the drug was for Singson's own use and has taken his guilty plea into consideration when handing down sentence.

Singson arrived at Chek Lap Kok airport last summer to transit to Macao for a concert.

Custom officers found the cocaine and tranquilizer pills in his luggage and his underpants.

He later pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in the District Court.

Teacher spared jail time in fraud

A teacher was sentenced to 240 hours of community service in Eastern Magistrates' Courts for deceiving his school into buying computers from his brother's company.

Tony Lee Shun-hung, a 43-year-old teacher at Caritas Chai Wan Marden Foundation Secondary School, earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud.

The court heard that Lee forged quotations from computer suppliers when the school purchased 25 computers, 14 LCD monitors and two sets of software on four occasions between May 2008 and February 2009.

As a result, the orders worth HK$150,000 were all placed with his debt-ridden brother's company.

Lee admitted he had never contacted any competitor company or disclosed to the principal that his brother was one of the bidders.

He said he wanted to help his brother clear debts because loan sharks were harassing his parents.

Magistrate Li Kwok-wai criticized Lee for breaching his school's trust but said leniency was shown because of Lee's good record in his 16-year teaching career.

Man held after stabbing mother

A man barricaded himself in an apartment after chopping his mother with a knife in Kwun Tong Thursday morning.

The mother, 55, called police at around 11:30 am after fleeing from her apartment in Sau Yin House in Sau Mau Ping.

She said she was attacked with a knife by her son during a quarrel.

The man locked himself away in the apartment with a male baby when police arrived. Firefighters laid a mattress outside the building in case he decided to commit suicide.

The man opened the door after talking to police officers for about half an hour. He was placed under arrest for assault.

The mother suffered injuries to her head and hand. She is in stable condition after treatment.

Thieves escape police pursuit

Two thieves who fled in a taxi abandoned their plunder and escaped after police stopped the car during a pursuit early Thursday.

Police received a report at about 4 am that two thieves stole wires from a construction site in Diocesan Girls' School in Jordan and fled in a taxi.

Police intercepted the taxi near a junction of Chatham Road North and Valley Road. But the two thieves leapt outside the minute the taxi stopped and ran away.

Police found five bags of wires left in the car. The taxi driver declared his innocence.

China Daily

(HK Edition 02/25/2011 page1)