Duo jailed for conspiracy to steal
**********************************


	Two men, aged 22 and 23, were today (January 21) jailed for 40 months after being convicted of conspiracy to steal and possessing false instruments.

	The District Court heard that on April 21, 2007, a 29-year-old man went to an automatic teller machine (ATM) at Jaffe Road in Wan Chai to withdraw money and discovered two men acting suspiciously there.  A report was then made.  

Police officers arrived and intercepted the two men at the junction of Lockhart Road and O'Brien Road where 20 pieces of telephone cards and $26,230 cash were found on the 22-year-old man.  During a subsequent search at the hotel room where the two men stayed in Yau Ma Tei, 248 pieces of similar telephone cards and $354,000 cash were seized. 

	The Commercial Crime Bureau took over the case for further investigations and revealed that all the telephone cards seized were confirmed to be counterfeit payment cards encoded with data of 287 accounts in 20 United Kingdom banks and a total of $382,200 was withdrawn in April 2007.

The two men were later charged with conspiracy to steal and possessing false instruments.  They were convicted of the charges at the District Court last Friday (January 18) and the sentence was handed down today.

Police Report No.7

Issued by PPRB
End/Monday, January 21, 2008
NNNN