Australian lawyer Sam Monkivitch, who was fined and given an 18-month suspended jail term after pleading guilty to charges related to a dinner party and ram across Hong Kong, it is suspected to be targeting small home businesses again.
The 50-year-old recently hit up an inner city salon in Melbourne. according to to Australia’s Nine News on Tuesday.
Salon owner Vanessa said: “He told me his name and his whole story of how he was arrested in Hong Kong for restaurant fraud and non-payment. He showed me the article. He carries it with him, bragging about it. He’s proud of it.”
She added that he disappeared and did not return when it was time to pay. “He said, ‘No, I’m going to get your money. Go to the bank, get the money, come back.’ And he said, ‘I’ll be back in 20 minutes.’ Like, it’s literally two doors down.”
Nine reporters, A current issuevisited Monkivitch at home. Although he did not answer the door, he may have seen the crew on CCTV and returned to pay for the salon less than two hours later. He later refused to answer questions when confronted by another Nine reporter.
Entertainment in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, Monkivitch was charged with four counts of gratuitous settlement between April 24 and May 5, as well as one criminal charge of damage, according to local media. reported.
The lawyer failed to pay restaurant bills at Island Shangri-La’s Cafe Too in Admiralty, Kowloon Shangri-La’s Cafe Kool in Tsim Sha Tsui and two other restaurants – one in Central and another in Wan Chai. His bill at the four restaurants totaled about HK$2,039, the court heard.
The criminal damage offenses relate to allegations that, on May 4, he vandalized a sales terminal on Shangri-La Island and damaged a person’s iPhone outside the Hong Kong Museum of History in Tsim Sha Tsui.
He was released on June 5 after spending a month behind bars. According to Age. He was also ordered to pay HK$12,539.90 to cover the damaged iPhone and unpaid bills.
A family member – who traveled to Hong Kong for the hearing – agreed to pay the fine.
Monkivitch appeared 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, maybe”, 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.
Separately in May, he was fined HK$3,000 for two counts of giving up without pay and one count of common assault. He pleaded guilty to the offenses on the same day, local media reported.
