A cunning 49-year-old minibus driver was arrested last Thursday for cheating the government out of HKD150,000 with an elderly and disabled concession scheme.
Police found 21 Senior Octopus cards on the suspect when he was arrested in Wong Tai Sin. According to Oriental Daily (as translated by the HKFP), the man used the cards up to 7,500 times over the past six months whilst operating the Sheung Shui-Kwun Tong route.
The Transport Department tipped off the police when they noticed that an unusual number of elderly citizens seemed to be using the minibuses at late night. Apparently they don’t get out much.
Under the Public Transport Fare Concession Scheme for the Elderly and Eligible Persons with Disabilities (quite the mouthful), passengers only pay HKD2 per trip. The government returns the rest of the fare to the minibus operators, with the drivers getting their contractual share of the swag.
As the fare Sheung Shui-Kwun Tong route is HKD22.5, the government would have returned HKD20.5 every time a card was scanned. Keeerching!
It’s believed that the arrested man was working alone.
