An Australian man has been arrested for allegedly eating at five-star hotels in Hong Kong without paying, just a day after he was fined HK$3,000 for similar charges.
Samuel Anthony Monkivitch, 50, appeared in the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Friday. He was charged with gratuitous pardon and criminal damage between April 24 and May 5, local media reported reported.
Monkivitch, a lawyer, is accused of failing to pay restaurant bills at Cafe Too on Shangri-La Island in Admiralty, Cafe Kool at Kowloon Shangri-La in Tsim Sha Tsui and two other restaurants – one in Central and another in Wan Chai.
His bill at the four locations 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.
Magistrate Tobias Cheng denied Monkivitch bail and adjourned the case to June 5. Monkivitch will attend a bail hearing on May 15.
Earlier on Thursday, the lawyer was fined HK$3,000 for two counts of gratuitous indulgence and one count of common assault. He pleaded guilty to the crimes on the same day, local media reported reported.
Monkivitch was accused of running away after spending HK$639.10 at a Chiu Chow restaurant in Times Square, a shopping mall in Causeway Bay, on March 23. A restaurant staff member followed Monkivitch and said he hadn’t paid, drawing the attention of a passerby named Chen, who pointed a camera at him.
The lawyer grappled with the bystander and said, “Do you want your head broken?”
Monkivitch was also accused of leaving before paying a HK$586 bill at Footaholic, a massage parlor in Wan Chai, on March 25.
