Playing the tough guy backfired for a cabbie who tried to muscle his way to the front of a taxi queue by claiming to be a gangster.
Lau Chi-wa, 52, now faces potential jail time over the power play, with prosecutors charging him with acting as a member of a triad society, Apple Daily reports.
At a hearing at Fanling Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Lau pleaded not guilty to the charge, related to an exchange with a fellow cabbie on May 13.
On that particular day, the fellow driver, Chan Sin-yuen, 40, was at the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Public Transport Interchange (the place where passengers line up for cabs) to look for fares.
Then, at about 6am, up came Lau, who knocked on his window. The audio of their conversation, recorded by a dash camera pointed toward the road, was played to the court.
“Don’t you know the rules around here? We have some people in the queue.”
Another voice, that of Chan’s, can be heard asking “what rules?”
Throughout the video, Lau can be heard telling Chan to just go to the back of the taxi queue. Chan, who had been waiting for a while, refused to move.
In a snippet of the clip included in the Apple Daily video report, one male voice can be heard yelling: “I’m telling you, you’re not a member so you better go to the back! It’s that simple! I’m a member!”
Chan can be heard asking “a member of what?”
“A triad!” says the other voice.
At one point in the video, the voice of one man — which Chan told the court belongs to Lau — threatened him and, at one point, said “I’ve been in a lot of fights don’t you know?”
Chan told the court that only Lau — who was arrested soon after Chan posted the conversation online — was there at the time.
He said he felt scared when the threat was made.
During cross-examination, defense lawyers, however, pointed out that Chan was no angel.
In fact, he was jailed for 15 months for extortion in 2008 and fined HK$2,000 (US$255) for criminal intimidation in 2012, and that in the video, Chan did not sound scared as he claimed in court, but appeared calm.
Chan disagreed.
A defense witness and another taxi driver named Choi Pak-yip, 51, told the court that he’s known the defendant for about three years, said that he and Lau had lined up in the area earlier, and that the voice in the video making the threat was not that of Lau’s.
According to the Societies Ordinance, claiming to be a triad member is an offense, and there is no need to prove that the person professing or claiming to be a member of a triad society is in fact a member.
Those convicted under this ordinance are subject to a fine of HK$100,000 (US$12,800) and a three-year jail sentence. A second or subsequent conviction can land you a HK$250,000 (US$31,900) fine and a seven-year jail sentence.
The trial continues.
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