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| Bank where incident took place (Google Maps photo) |
A 68-year-old Filipina was convicted today of theft for taking an iPad left on top of an ATM machine, but will not spend a day of her three-month jail sentence unless she commits another offense within 18 months.
J. Ong was meted the suspended jail sentence
after a one-day trial today at Eastern Court before Magistrate Tobias Cheng.
Magistrate Cheng noted that evidence such as a CCTV footage and testimonies from two witnesses pointed to her guilt.
Ong had earlier pleaded not guilty to taking the iPad left by a man on an ATM machine at the Bank of China branch on 1 Wyndham Street in Central at about 2am on Oct 15, 2024, and mistakenly passed on to her by another person.
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Ong testified that she took a taxi after leaving the bank but realized she had forgotten her handbag, so she asked to be driven back to recover it.
She said she reached the bank as the other woman was leaving, and
told her she was the owner of the handbag. The woman also gave her the iPad.
Magistrate Cheng gave credence to her testimony where she claimed to have taken home the iPad instead of giving it to a guard, to make sure that it was safe as she would return it to the owner herself.
However, he disregarded her claim that she was unable to return the iPad immediately because she was sickly and had to work at a Lan Kwai Fong resto-bar.
Ong claimed she had forgotten all about it until a police officer called her three months later to inquire if she
found the gadget, which she had kept inside her wardrobe.
The owner testified that the three-year-old iPad was never
used and was in the same condition as when he left it on the ATM machine after
withdrawing money.
