Hong Kong logged over 90,000 reported crime cases in 2023 – a 28.9 per cent increase from a year earlier. The rise was led by a surge in fraud-related offences and violent crime, including robbery and rape, according to police data released on Tuesday.
Deception cases rose by 42.6 per cent last year, and were the major cause for the upward trend in overall crime, Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu told reporters at a press conference to announce the latest figures.
Close to 70 per cent of fraud cases were linked to online scams, with losses nearing HK$9 billion in total, Siu said in Cantonese, adding that the surge was a global phenomenon aggravated by the development of cross-border online trade and financial services.
A total of 9,239 people were arrested over their suspected involvement in fraud-related cases and money laundering in 2023. Among them, about 6,500 people were holders of “stooge accounts,” the bank accounts used to receive or launder crime proceeds.
Siu said that police had been working with the Department of Justice to expedite prosecution and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to curb fraudulent activities conducted through banks.
Violent crime up
Separately, violent crime including robbery and blackmail also rose by 14.6 per cent, the data showed. In particular, sexual offences such as rape increased by 26.4 per cent and indecent assault by 21.9 per cent.
Police recorded 28 cases of homicide in 2023, down from 30 in the year before. Meanwhile, wounding and serious assaults increased by 0.6 per cent, standing at some 3,600 cases in the two years.
Siu said traditional crime figures in 2023 had rebounded after the numbers dropped to a relatively low level in the first half of 2022 amid the Covid-19 outbreak, when stringent public health restrictions were in effect. He said, despite the rise, figures for most traditional crimes recorded last year were still lower than five years ago.
Among the crimes that had recorded a decrease in 2023, serious drug offences dropped by 19.7 per cent and triad-related crimes by 8.6 per cent.
Asked about the number of prosecutions that arose from the 2019 protests and unrest, the police chief said 10,279 people, aged 11 to 87, had been arrested. As of December 31 last year, 2,955 had completed or were undergoing legal procedures, Siu said.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
As the protests subsided following the outbreak of Covid-19 and Beijing’s imposition of a national security law in 2020, suspects in protest-related cases have been charged with rioting and unlawful assembly, among other crimes. Prosecutions and trials continue.
National Security
Siu also vowed that safeguarding national security would continue to be a priority in 2024.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
When HKFP asked the Chief Executive’s Office about the rise in violent crime and fraud, and whether authorities were distracted with security law issues such as warrants for foreign activists, the enquiry was passed to the police, who did not give a direct response.
“It was noteworthy that in the first half of 2022 amid the epidemic, a number of traditional crime figures dropped to a particularly low level, some of which even hit a record low. As the society resumed normalcy in 2023, most traditional crimes recorded an increase when compared with 2022, but quite a number of them registered a fairly significant decrease when compared with 2018, the year before the outbreak of the “black-clad violence” and the epidemic,'” a spokesperson said on Thursday. “In 2023, a number of traditional crimes saw a very low figure and a high detection rate over a number of years.”
“Police will continue to give priority to issues concerning law and order situation that are of public concerns, including proactively working in collaboration with relevant departments, regulatory authorities and industries to formulate additional measures to combat deception,” they added.
As of January 19, 291 people had been arrested for suspected breaches of national security offences, the Security Bureau told HKFP. Among them, 174 people and five companies had been charged under the national security law, the sedition law, or with other crimes.
Of those charged, 111 people – including 32 charged under the security law – have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing.
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