Hong Kong police arrest 3 mainland Chinese visitors over 2 robberies ‘as they try to flee city’

Hong Kong police have arrested three visitors from mainland China in connection with two robberies, stopping them at border checkpoints when they tried to flee the city, the Post has learned.

One of the three men was intercepted at the China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui on Wednesday, with the other two suspects picked up at another border control point the next day, a source familiar with the case on Friday said.

Inspector Yau Chung-hin of the Eastern criminal investigation unit revealed that the three suspects were identified after officers pored over more than 300 hours of security camera footage.

As of Friday morning, the three men aged from 34 to 50 were being detained on suspicion of robbery. The force said they were from Jiangxi province and held two-way exit permits – the mainland travel document used to enter Hong Kong.

Police made the arrests in connection with two separate hold-ups in the same outdoor car park on Sheung On Street in Chai Wan on May 21 and Sunday earlier this week.

In the May robbery, a 59-year-old man was stopped and assaulted by two knife-wielding robbers when he left his vehicle in the car park at around 9pm, according to police.

The China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui. A source familiar with the case says one of the suspects was arrested at the facility when trying to leave the city. Photo: Dickson Lee

“The two [robbers] used shoelaces to bind the victim, took him back to his car, and threatened him into revealing his bank card’s pin number,” Yau said.

He said one of the assailants then went to withdraw money and later returned to join the other robber who remained in the vehicle with the victim. The pair then fled the scene.

The force said the victim later untied himself and called police. He lost HK$18,000 (US$2,310)and 400 yuan (US$56) in the incident.

The most recent robbery involved a 46-year-old male victim who was punched and kicked by three culprits after he parked his truck in the same car park at around 8.30pm.

The victim was also tied up and robbed of HK$28,000 and 2,000 yuan, according to the force.

Yau said an investigation showed that in the two incidents the perpetrators accused the victims of being someone else before attacking and robbing them.

“We believe the criminals deliberately created a false impression to make the victims believe that they were being targeted [by mistake] for revenge or debt collection,” the inspector said.

He said he believed the suspects used the tactic in an attempt to steer the police investigation in the wrong direction.

The force has zero tolerance for violent crimes, according to Chief Inspector Yeung Wan-ming of the Eastern police district.

“Police are determined and capable of dealing with such crimes,” she said, adding that robbery was a serious offence and punishable by up to life imprisonment.

Between January and September this year, police handled 75 robbery cases, an increase of 33.9 per cent from 56 incidents logged in the same period in 2022.