Judge Toh made the remarks when passing out sentences to three men for attempting to blackmail the Chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. (SHK), out of $15 million.

"The victim acted properly by reporting to the Police early and cooperating fully with the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB)," she noted.

Police immediately started surveillance after receiving the report and the three were arrested two days later on August 14 last year.

"This is one of the examples why we should trust the Police.

"There should not be any doubt in the mind of any victim that an early report to Police not only benefits themselves but society," said Judge Toh.

Blackmail calls. The drama started on August 10 last year. The three called the company on different days using aliases.

The first man called the company posing as a staff member of the Xinhua News Agency. The man wanted to talk to the SHK chairman direct but was told by one of the personal secretaries that he was busy at that time. He left a mobile phone number and hung up.

In the morning on August 12, the Public Relations Manager of SHK called back the man. The man said: "We are from the Mainland. We have to flee from home. Tell the chairman to give us $15 million today."

The Public Relations Manager then realised that this was a type of blackmail. She pretended that she could not hear what he was saying because of the noisy background and hung up.

Report Made to Police. A report was immediately made to the Police. OCTB officers took up the investigation in the afternoon the same day with the assistance of the Criminal Intelligence Bureau (CIB).

A small team of officers discreetly proceeded to the office of SHK and a Woman Police Constable of the OCTB was assigned to pose as a personal assistant to the chairman to deal with the negotiations from then on. A telephone conversation recording facility was installed.

Later that day, the man stating he was Mr Lau asked for $15 million in cash to be deposited into a given bank account. He told the WPC that his boss was surnamed Wong and they had to flee because someone wanted to kill them.

A "Mr Wong" called about half an hour later to ask for $15 million in cash as their "journey fee". He told the WPC that he would send a "Black Star pistol" to the company and someone would shoot their staff in the vicinity of their company if they did not meet their demand. Once that happened, he would raise the demand to $150 million. He gave the WPC the same bank account number and a mobile phone number for future contacts.

Delay Tactics Employed. The investigation continued the next day. The small police team at SHK were instructed to adopt delay tactics to allow CIB officers more time to identify the culprits.

While CIB officers were working hard to track down the culprits, the WPC played her role so well that the culprits did not realise that they were already "close to the trap".

In order to find more time for her colleagues to do their work, the WPC called "Mr Lau" in the morning to tell him she was still busy doing her administrative work and would give him a reply as soon as possible.

To prevent the culprits from doing anything harmful, the WPC tactfully mentioned to "Mr Lau" that "Mr Wong" had told her the day before about sending a gun and shooting people. She tried her very best to persuade him not to do silly things.

However, "Mr Lau" still called several times later in the morning to ask for a response to their demand. The WPC skillfully made excuses and promised to give him a reply in the afternoon.

Breakthrough. The WPC had several more telephone conversations with "Mr Lau" the same afternoon to try to get more information about the culprits.

At the same time, the information gathered was passed quickly to the Surveillance Unit.

Three culprits were soon identified and located in Wong Tai Sin by about 5 pm. In the meantime, the WPC managed to ask "Mr Wong" to phone again the next day in order to gain more time for her colleagues to carry out their investigation.

"Deal" Struck. In the afternoon on August 14, a third man who claimed to be "Mr Chan" called SHK, saying that he called on behalf of "Mr Wong" and asked for a reply to their request.

The WPC continued to negotiate with "Mr Chan" over the phone several times using delay tactics until sufficient evidence had been collected against all three culprits later the day.

The WPC then "agreed" to strike a deal with "Mr Chan" who asked her to deposit $6 million into the given bank account within 10 minutes. "Mr Chan" promised that the chairman would no longer be in danger once the money was paid.

Arrest and Conviction. At this time, OCTB officers immediately took action to arrest the three.

All three defendants were jointly charged with the offence of blackmail and were each sentenced to 40 months imprisonment on February 22.

Professionalism Displayed. This was a massive operation involving more than 100 officers from the OCTB and the CIB. As pointed out by Judge Toh, this was a job well done.

"Professionalism displayed by the officers involved, good coordination, adequate preparations and effective team work, all contributed to the success in the arrest of the suspects within just three days and the subsequent conviction of them," said SP OCTB C Division Ma Wang-chow.

The WPC liaised so skillfully that none of the three culprits cast doubt on her "identity" as a personal assistant to the chairman. Assistance from the small team of OCTB officers enabled her to adopt delay tactics successfully. She obtained useful information from the culprits during the course of telephone conversations, which was then passed promptly by OCTB officers to the Surveillance Unit. OCTB officers also managed to prove during the conversations that all three suspects had the knowledge of the blackmail plot.

CIB officers reacted quickly to identify and locate the suspects.

"OCTB officers did a good job in interviewing the suspects, who initially denied committing the offence," Mr Ma said.

"After skillful questioning, they admitted the offence during video interviews," he noted.

"The case officer and his team also did a very professional job in preparing the case for prosecution by identifying the relevant materials needed for the case."

"Their work resulted in all three defendants choosing to plead guilty on the advice of their defence counsels," Mr Ma added.

This case illustrates perfectly well the professionalism and excellent efficiency of the Police Force. This is also a shining example of why crime victims should trust in Asia's Finest and make early reports to the Police.