Australian lawyer Samuel Monkivitch has been fined and given an 18-month suspended jail term after pleading guilty to charges related to a Territory-wide lunch spree.
Monkivitch appeared in the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Friday after dining at five-star hotels in Hong Kong without paying. He had previously been fined HK$3,000 for similar charges.
In the most recent case, Monkivitch was charged with four counts of gratuity 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.
The 50-year-old was released on Friday 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.
He 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.
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Separately, last month, 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 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.
