Hong Kong jails homeless Vietnamese man for robbery

Ngo The Manh, 42, who was unemployed and entered Hong Kong as an undocumented migrant, was found guilty of breaking into a flat and threatening 67-year-old Cheung Kam-hung with a kitchen knife and grabbing his wallet in May 2017, the South China Morning Post reported.

According to the indictment, Cheung was resting in bed in his fourth-floor flat in a tenement building when Manh barged through the unlocked back door and threatened him with a meat cleaver he found in the kitchen.

Out of fear, Cheung sat silently and didn’t resist while Ngo took his wallet, containing cash worth around $70, an ATM card and other identification papers, and fled the scene.

Cheung immediately called the police and reported the incident.

Manh turned himself in at a police station the same day.

"Out of momentary greed, I stole money to buy food," he told a police officer, as cited by SCMP.

In Hong Kong, armed robbery carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Last year, Hong Kong police arrested two Vietnamese men, believed to be illegal immigrants, for allegedly breaking into a luxury villa by climbing a balcony and stealing HK$300,000 ($38,400) in cash and some jewelry.