Australian lawyer Samuel Monkivitch has received a fine and suspended 18-month jail term after pleading guilty to charges relating to a dine-and-dash spree across the territory.
Monkivitch appeared on Friday at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts after dining at five-star hotels in Hong Kong without paying. He was previously fined HK$3,000 over similar charges.
In the most recent case, Monkivitch was charged with four instances of making off without payment between April 24 and May 5, as well as a criminal damage charge, local media reported.
The lawyer failed to pay restaurant bills at the Island Shangri-La’s Cafe Too in Admiralty, at the Kowloon Shangri-La’s Cafe Kool in Tsim Sha Tsui, and at two other restaurants – one in Central and another in Wan Chai. His bill at the four eateries totalled around HK$2,039, the court heard.
The criminal damage offences relate to allegations that, on May 4, he destroyed a sales terminal at the Island Shangri-La and damaged a person’s iPhone outside the Hong Kong Museum of History in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The 50-year-old was released on Friday after spending a month behind bars. He was fined HK$2,000 and was slapped with an six week jail term suspended for 18 months, according to The Age. He was also ordered to pay HK12,539.90 to cover the damaged iPhone and unpaid bills.
A family member – who travelled to Hong Kong for the hearing – agreed to pay the fine.
He represented himself before Magistrate David Cheung, confirming that he was unemployed given his time in custody. When asked when he planned to return to Australia, he said “today, probably,” according to The Age. He pleaded guilty without seeing the prosecution’s statement of facts.
His former employer KorumLegal told the newspaper that they had parted ways with Monkivitch.
Earlier offence
Separately last month, he was fined HK$3,000 for two counts of making off without payment and one count of common assault. He pleaded guilty to the offences the same day, local media reported.
Monkivitch was accused of dashing off after spending HK$639.10 at a Chiu Chow restaurant in Times Square, a mall in Causeway Bay, on March 23. A restaurant staff member chased Monkivitch and said he had not paid, attracting the attention of a bystander surnamed Chen, who pointed a camera at him.
The lawyer got into an altercation with the bystander and said to him, “Do you want your head smashed in?”
Monkivitch was also accused of leaving before paying a bill of HK$586 at Footaholic, a massage parlour in Wan Chai, on March 25.
