Two men were sentenced this morning to 28 months in prison for extortion and other crimes after forcing a woman to “take a bath” in order to pay off her gambling debt.
According to Apple Daily, defendants Lai Man-hon, 30, and Chan Tsz-ming, 28, forced the victim – a 25 year-old woman – to strip down and take a bath while they filmed her, saying that complying would reduce the amount she owed.
Both Lai and Chan had pleaded guilty to the crimes in District Court earlier.
Local news website hk01 reported that the victim borrowed a casino loan of about HK$37,000 (US$4,740) when she went to the gambling hub of Macau last year. She continued to gamble, and had 20 days to repay HK$60,000 (US$7,683).
The website reported that when she returned to Hong Kong the following day, the two defendants were waiting for her at the pier and told her she owed HK$180,000 (about US$23,000). The woman insisted she only owed HK$60,000, but this was ignored by the two men, who took her to a hotel room where they filmed and took the nude photographs of her.
The judge said the case was very serious and caused the victim a great deal of shock and anxiety as she was confined to the hotel room for 12 hours, and was told by the two men that the nude photos would be released if she tried to flee.
The judge also added that organized crime would likely be behind such cases, noting that the two men were not the masterminds behind the extortion.
