Ka Ming Chong: Businessman loses eye in prison attack
A businessman who ordered the brutal kidnapping and bashing of a man he suspected stole illegal cigarettes has lost his eye in a prison attack.
A jailed businessman who ordered the brutal kidnapping and bashing of a delivery driver he suspected stole about $500,000 worth of illegal cigarettes has had his sentence slashed.
Ka Ming Chong, 28, on Thursday faced the Victorian Court of Appeal where his prison term was cut from seven years and six months to four years and eight months following a successful sentence appeal.
The court was told Chong, who operated an import export business, was jailed in December 2021 for kidnapping and possession of an imitation firearm after his arrest in June the previous year.
The Jacana man had attempted to use his business to illegally import the cigarettes, but when the delivery arrived on April 23, they were missing.
Suspecting Yu-wen Chen, the subcontractor truck driver, had stolen the cigarettes, he asked escort agency receptionist Weiting Lu, 22, to lure him to a Melbourne home.
In a WeChat message he told her it was necessary to “capture and kidnap (Chen) for a few days until he confesses who is the instructor. Quite brutal”.
Chen arrived on May 24 under the assumption he was going to be paid to move furniture but was instead set upon by three men who hit him with a baseball bat and threw him in the back of his truck.
His hands and ankles were bound with plastic cable ties, and when he asked why this was happening, he was told: “Shut up, you will meet someone later.”
While the truck was driving away, Chen was able to squeeze his hands out and jump from the truck.
He flagged down another vehicle whose driver called police and emergency services.
In court, Chong’s Barrister Gregory Hughan contended his client’s sentence was excessive when compared with the one year and six months handed to Lu, who provided evidence against Chong.
He also argued the court should take into account a brutal prison attack on July 22, 2022, where Chong was hit in the face with a coffee cup and lost his right eye.
Crown prosecutor Christopher Boyce KC argued the sentencing differences were appropriate, given Chong and Lu were not equal participants.
Chong, he argued, was the instigator who recruited a team to assist and actively monitored the kidnapping.
Justices Tery Forrest and Lesley Taylor found the disparate sentence was justified, but the “magnitude of that difference” was excessive.
Chong will now be eligible for parole in June.