A male former casino employee was arrested on Friday for burning paper last month at a hotel in Zape and entering the restricted hotel staff area earlier that Friday, Judiciary Police spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a regular press conference yesterday.
The 28-year-old local jobless suspect is surnamed Leong who worked as a member of the fire maintenance staff in the casino. He resigned in mid-December last year as he felt the amount of work was not evenly distributed among the colleagues, according to Lei.
Lei said that the security department of the hotel reported to the police that a former staff member surnamed Leong had entered their staff car park on Friday evening. The security department discovered that Leong was about to enter the hotel’s restricted staff area so security guards intercepted him. He was taken to a security room, after which the hotel management reported the case to the police.
The security department told the police that Leong had entered the hotel on January 20 when he went to the escalator entrance on the third floor. He then lit some paper and held it up close to a smoke detector. The security department did not report the case to the police as the incident did not cause any damage.
Under questioning by the police, Leong claimed that he lit the paper in an attempt to trigger the smoke alarm with the aim of “increasing the workload of the old colleagues”. He also claimed that he had entered the restricted staff area on Friday because he intended to “catch his former workmates in the act of being lazy”.
Leong has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing an arson charge, according to Lei.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei poses during a regular press conference at the PJ headquarters yesterday. Photo: Camy Tam
