A Hong Kong beautician has pleaded guilty to fraud after admitting she lured two women to Thailand before they were trafficked to a Chinese-run scam compound in neighbouring Myanmar in December 2024. Get today's headlines by email Poon Sum-yi, 33, entered the guilty plea at the District Court on Friday. Prosecutors said she deceived the victims by offering free flights and accommodation, while promising they would be paid for transporting 48 million baht. Instead, the women were taken through Thailand and sold to a scam factory in Myanmar for US$54,000. The court heard that unemployed Peng Xinying and part-time model Liu Bingbing were originally invited by Poon to travel to either Japan or Canada. They accepted after she offered to cover all travel expenses. On 27 December 2024, Poon told the women she had booked flights to Thailand departing that evening and said they would return the following night. Less than three hours before departure, she met Peng in Mong Kok and deleted all of their text messages from the victim’s phone. After arriving in Bangkok at about 11pm, the pair entered a white vehicle believing they were heading to their hotel. By the following morning, they realised they were being driven north towards Chiang Mai. Poon, who had claimed she would take a later flight, never travelled to Thailand. The women were taken to the Thai-Myanmar border, where five armed men carrying knives and sticks confiscated their belongings before forcing them across a river. Six more armed men in military uniform then drove them to a Chinese-run scam compound, where they were told they had been sold. A mainland Chinese man known as “rabbit chief” demanded either a US$500,000 ransom or that the women help the syndicate defraud wealthy overseas Chinese of the same amount. The following month, after learning relatives were searching for them online, he agreed to release them for US$28,000 each, with the possibility of paying less if they remained at the compound longer. The victims contacted their families, who paid more than HK$585,000 in total to secure their release. Peng and Liu were freed on 8 January and returned to Hong Kong three days later. The Bangkokpost reported that the Judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching adjourned sentencing until 29 September while awaiting a Court of Appeal ruling in a similar case. Poon, who has been denied bail since being charged in January last year, remains in custody. Fraud carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment, although penalties in the District Court are capped at seven years. Join the discussion? Already a member? Adapted by ASEAN Now Bangkokpost 29 June 2026
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