HKUST waiter jailed five months for laptop thefts
SingTao · 3 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago1 MIN
Summary
A waiter working at a restaurant on the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology campus was sentenced to five months in jail at Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts after pleading guilty to two theft charges over the stealing of two students’ laptops in June. Acting Principal Magistrate Lee Chi-ho said the offences were serious because they were committed on campus, involved expensive laptops, and imprisonment was unavoidable.
Key Points
- The defendant, 35-year-old Mok Tsz-fung, admitted stealing two laptops on June 16 and June 19, 2026, in public areas of the HKUST campus.
- The thefts took place at the ground floor of LT-J and a temporary study area outside the Chiang Chen Lecture Hall.
- The two laptops belonged to students To Yat-fan and Tsui Ning, and were valued at HK$5,499 and HK$9,300 respectively.
- Police identified Mok from CCTV footage, and he later admitted acting out of greed before selling the laptops for HK$300 and HK$500.
- Officers later recovered the stolen devices from a second-hand electronics shop, while the defence said Mok had since been dismissed from his job.
Why It Matters
The case underlines the legal risks of opportunistic theft in shared campus spaces that students often treat as safe places to study. It also shows that CCTV footage and second-hand resale trails can quickly connect stolen electronics to offenders and lead to custodial sentences.