A Hong Kong court has sentenced a former Apple Store employee to 13 months in jail after he admitted to stealing and selling 44 iPhones.
Davy Vincent Cheng pleaded guilty to theft at the District Court on Monday, according to court news outlet The Witness.
He was accused of stealing the iPhones from October to December 2020 while working at the Apple Store in Hysan Place, Causeway Bay.
The court heard that Cheng told police after his arrest in January 2021 that he managed iPhone inventory at the store. When handing an iPhone to frontline staff, he would take one more for himself and put it in his pants pocket.
He also told police that he would then bring the phones to Mong Kok to sell them. During the period of his offence, he deposited around HK$440,000 into his bank account.
Cheng was caught after his supervisor counted the inventory and found that phones were missing. The supervisor reviewed CCTV footage and saw that Cheng often took iPhones from storage without recording them on the computer or handing them to customers.
Management staff confronted him in late December 2020, and Cheng admitted to stealing the iPhones out of greed. He said he had already sold the phones and earned around HK$440,000 from the sales.
He was fired about a week later in early January and signed a written agreement to return the HK$440,000. He made a bank transfer of that amount to Apple two days after he lost his job and was arrested later that month.
Judge Lily Wong jailed Cheng for 13 months and ordered him to pay around HK$32,000 to his former employer.
Under Hong Kong law, theft is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Sentences delivered in the District Court are capped at seven years.
