Two former Chanel warehouse employees are standing trial at the High Court on Tuesday for allegedly orchestrating a heist to steal hundreds of luxury handbags and wallets that the brand had marked for destruction.
The duo, working alongside two other warehouse staff members, were intercepted by management and police in early 2017 as they attempted to load the stolen goods into a delivery van at the company's Tsing Yi facility.
The Hong Kong branch of the French luxury fashion house Chanel has a corporate policy of destroying between 10,000 and 20,000 outdated luxury items every six months.
The disposal process involves warehouse managers confirming the inventory, after which inspectors verify the items, remove their packaging, and send them from the 23rd-floor warehouse to a 5th-floor office in the Goodman Interlink center in Tsing Yi to be shredded. Access to the freight elevator connecting these floors requires a specific security passcode and key.
The defendants currently on trial are Ng, a 42-year-old former warehouse department supervisor who managed the import division and held the elevator security passcode, and Cheung, a 42-year-old former warehouse worker who had left the company in 2011.
They allegedly colluded with two current warehouse staff members at the time, Ho Tung-shan and Ho Tsz-yin.
Suspecting that warehouse employees were stealing goods meant for destruction and reselling them, Chanel management instructed logistics supervisors to monitor the situation.
In late January 2017, a manager reviewing CCTV footage spotted the two Hos bypassing company protocol. They were seen packing luxury goods into cardboard boxes and hiding them in a secluded area on the 23rd floor.
These items were supposed to have been shredded earlier that month.
To prevent the men from moving the boxes, management temporarily reassigned them to the 5th floor. However, days later, Ho Tung-shan was seen spending hours in the secluded area taping up the boxes.
The plot unraveled on the morning of February 2. After the two Hos used a pallet jack to move legitimate scrap cardboard to the 5th floor, Cheung accessed the 23rd floor.
He and Ho Tung-shan moved 33 boxes containing the stolen luxury items into the freight elevator. Cheung then transported the goods alone to a waiting rental van in the parking lot.
During this time, Ng was observed pacing near the elevator on the parking level before returning to his office.
A warehouse assistant manager intercepted Cheung at the van and immediately alerted the authorities. Upon opening the boxes, police discovered 123 wallets and 601 handbags that should have been destroyed in January.
Officers arrested all four men on the premises that same day. Phone records revealed frequent communication among the four men in the days leading up to the incident.
During police questioning, Cheung admitted that the items were taken from the Chanel warehouse. He also confessed that a colleague had instructed him to call a van to move the 33 boxes.
Furthermore, he voluntarily directed police to a separate industrial storage unit he rented in Kwun Tong.
A subsequent search of that facility uncovered additional items intended for destruction, including a pair of earrings, a necklace, a pair of shoes, and four more handbags.
Ng and Cheung face a joint charge of conspiracy to steal property belonging to Chanel Hong Kong Limited between January 20 and February 2, 2017.
Cheung faces an additional charge of handling stolen goods regarding the items recovered from his Kwun Tong storage unit, for allegedly keeping and disposing of property he knew to be stolen.
The trial is currently proceeding before a jury of five men and two women.
