Common Sense 101

Thieving rich kids get a roasting - Two well-to-do University of Hong Kong students who stole a friend's credit cards to buy computers were slammed by a magistrate yesterday. Patsy Moy Friday, September 18, 2009 Two well-to-do University of Hong Kong students who stole a friend's credit cards to buy computers were slammed by a magistrate yesterday. The scolding came after Michel Yuen Sui-fa, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of theft, while his girlfriend, Li Chi-wah, 21, admitted two charges of obtaining property by deception. Acting principal magistrate Chan Kam-cheong lambasted the pair for their greed, saying he saw no financial pressure that could have driven them to commit the offenses. Yuen, who was raised in France, is a second year accounting and finance student at HKU and lives in a luxury flat in Kowloon with his family. Li is the only child of an engineer father and a teacher mother. Yuen was accompanied by his mother, and Li by her father when they appeared in Kwun Tong Magistrates' Court yesterday. The magistrate said the defendants were privileged enough to enter the city's top university. But he said they had failed to take advantage of the opportunity to study hard, resorting instead to dishonest tricks. "You should feel lucky to have these [caring] parents. Both of you come from relatively well-off families," Chan said. Yuen's theft took place on August 25 at the upscale Elements mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. He had invited the victim to see a movie and have dinner. Yuen suggested exchanging wallets with the friend "for fun," then removed the credit cards from her wallet and handed them to Li. Li took the credit cards to a computer shop in Sham Shui Po, where she tried to buy two laptops worth at least HK$20,000. When the shopkeeper became suspicious and asked for Li's identity card, she panicked and tried to flee. After a brief chase, she was caught by the shopkeeper and later arrested by police. Chan adjourned sentencing to October 2, pending probation and community service reports. Both Yuen and Li are on HK$500 cash bail.

All three of these kids (including the victim) should be expelled from Hong Kong University for being idiots.