A 59-year-old driver was sentenced to six months in prison yesterday for smuggling gold from the mainland in rather novel fashion: inside a school bus full of kids.
The man, surnamed Koo, was arrested in 2017 while ferrying cross-boundary students from mainland China into the city, and was convicted by the Fanling Magistrates’ Courts for using a modified school bus to smuggle the precious metal in violation of the import and export ordinance (IEO).
According to police reports, customs officers intercepted the bus at Man Kam To Control Point on Dec. 6, 2017. RTHK reports that they discovered twelve gold bars, each weighing around 12 kilograms, with an estimated value of HK$4.2 million (about US$536,000), inside a modified storage unit at the front of the vehicle.
According to the SCMP, the vehicle also contained around 40 cross-boundary students.
Koo was convicted of importing unlisted goods and smuggling using a modified vehicle. On.cc reports that Koo pleaded not guilty, saying the gold bars were his own.
Koo, whose family lives on the mainland, said he wanted to sell the gold in order to purchase a property in Sheung Shui, which would be more convenient for his daughter, who is herself a cross-boundary student and had to commute a long distance in order to attend school in Hong Kong. However, the court found his account less than credible.
Koo also said that he hid the gold in order to avoid tax, and that the modified compartment of the vehicle was already there when he first started driving the bus.
According to the IEO, the maximum penalty for importing and exporting unlisted cargo is a fine of HK$2 million and up to seven years in prison.
The conviction means that Koo will now inherit the prize for “Best Attempt to Smuggle Contraband in an Innocuous Way” from that guy who got busted at the airport with a bunch of heroin inside some children’s books.
