Never give up you ATM (automatic teller machine) card and its pin (personal idenification number) in return for cash, however desperate you are for money.
In the case of domestic helper Marichel Lubog, 39 years old,
the $3,000 she received from a friend in return for her ATM with The Hongkong
and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, resulted in her getting jailed for
six months.
She was sentenced today by Magistrate Kestrel Lam at Eastern
Court after she pleaded guilty to dealing with property known or believed to
represent proceeds of indictable offence, contrary to sections 25(1) and 25(3)
of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance.
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Lubog got involved in money
laundering after her bank account ended up receiving 27 deposits totalling $373,320.03
made by a woman, who was identified as PW1 (Prosecution Witness 1) scammed by a
syndicate between December 2, 2020 and October 15, 2021.
She committed the offense, “together with other person(s)
unknown, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that property,… in
whole or in part directly or indirectly represented any person's proceeds of an
indictable offence, dealt with the said property,” according to the police.
Magistrate Lam set a starting point
for the penalty at 10- months imprisonment, but deducted one third (of three
months) from the sentence, plus one month as additional discount for the delayed
prosecution.
The defence lawyer had earlier noted that prosecution was
delayed for four years because the case was filed only last May 29, when she
was first arrested immediately after she was traced through her bank account, but released.
Lubog, who arrived in Hong Kong in 2018, is the sole
breadwinner for her husband and four children who are in the Philippines.
