Hong Kong traffic policemen accused of staging 19 bogus crashes

Hong Kong - Two Hong Kong policemen were on trial Tuesday accused of staging 19 bogus crashes and conning drivers out of thousands of US dollars in false compensation claims. The two officers would allegedly deliberately ram other vehicles in the city's congested Kowloon district while they were off duty then blame the other driver and demand cash compensation. They allegedly conned compensation payouts totalling more than 3,300 US dollars after staging 19 bogus accidents over the space of nine months, the first day of the officers' trial in Hong Kong's District Court heard Monday. They were rumbled when three taxi drivers complained of being involved in collisions with the same car, a Saab, on the same stretch of road within the space of days in June last year, prosecutors said. Although they succeeded in getting motorists to hand over sums of up to 1,000 US dollars in compensation, the pair ended up reinvesting more than 2,300 US dollars of the 3,300 US dollars they made on repairs to their Saab, the court was told. Ng Chun-ming, 33, and Hui Man-tai, 30, who have both been suspended from duty, deny conspiracy to defraud and an alternative charge of conspiracy to steal. Their trial was continuing Tuesday.