Saturday, September 11, 2010

HK court sentences man to 16 months for Kobe watch theft

HONG KONG - A Hong Kong man who pleaded guilty to trafficking eight stolen Rolex watches from a Japanese department store last year was on Thursday sentenced to 16 months in prison by a Hong Kong district court.

Lee Kui-man, 47, was charged with handling stolen goods after he was arrested at a border checkpoint on route to mainland China in January with nine stolen Rolex watches. Eight of the watches were later confirmed to be among those that went missing from the Daimaru Kobe department store in June last year.

‘‘Based on the nature of the offense, I find two years an appropriate starting point’’ for a prison term, Deputy District Judge Gary Lam said. In light of Lee’s guilty plea, the sentence was reduced to 16 months.

The eight watches, carrying a wholesale price worth about HK$500,000 (about $64,300), were among 83 Rolex watches that went missing from the department store’s Rolex counter after a hole was found drilled in the adjacent wall of the counter.

In addition to the Kobe theft, Lee also pleaded guilty to four counts of burglary that happened between 2002 and 2003 in Hong Kong.
Read original at Japan Today



Body found on Beppu mountainside identified as missing Kobe nurse
OITA - Police said Monday that DNA testing has revealed the remains of a woman found strangled on a wooded mountainside in Beppu on Sunday are those of Hiromi Yokote, a 28-year-old nurse from Kobe who had been reported missing.

According to police, Yokote, who worked at a hospital in Hyogo Prefecture, told her family she was going on vacation to Kyushu alone. Yokote left her home by car on Aug 28 and her family reported her missing on Sept 1 after they became concerned that they could not contact her. Yokote’s car was found near her body a short distance from Beppu’s famous hot spring resort.
Read original at Japan Today

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