DH who found and used Octopus card charged with theft

 

West Kowloon Court, where the case is  being heard

A domestic helper has found herself answering a criminal case in West Kowloon Court after she picked up an Octopus card and, instead of turning it over to authority so it could be returned to the owner, used it to buy something.

Shie-leth Barbon, 47 years old, was set free on bail which Magistrate Jason Wan increased from $800 to $2,000 during a hearing on Thursday (July 18), after the prosecution asked for an adjournment of the case to Aug. 29.

He also told Barbon not to contact any of the witnesses, aside from setting other terms for her release, such as reporting to police regularly and not leaving Hong Kong.

PINDUTIN DITO

A police complaint accused Barbon of stealing a personalized Octopus card, which has a Chinese name on it, when she found it somewhere in Sham Shui Po last April 22.

She then used the card in purchasung $84 worth of items from a dispensary (drug store) at the Mount Sterling Mall in Mei Foo Sun Chuen, Kowloon.

TAWAG NA!

Because she kept the card, she was accused of committing theft which, in the extreme, is punishable under the Theft Ordinance by up to 10 years imprisonment.

By using it, she was accused of another theft because she “did steal a chose in action, namely, debt in the sum of $84 owed by Octopus Card Limited to” the card owner, who was named in the complaint.

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