Dine-and-dash lawyer allegedly up to same shenanigans back in Australia – report

Australian lawyer Sam Monkivitch, who received a fine and suspended 18-month jail term after pleading guilty to charges relating to a dine-and-dash spree across Hong Kong, is allegedly targeting small businesses again back home.

The 50-year-old recently struck an inner-city salon in Melbourne, according to Australia’s Nine News on Tuesday.

The salon owner, Vanessa, said: “He told me his name and his whole story of how he’d been arrested in Hong Kong for scamming restaurants and not paying. He showed me the article. He’s carrying it around with him, boasting about it. He’s proud of it.”

She added that he vanished and did not return when it was time to pay. “He was like, ‘No, I’ll go and get your cash. Go to the bank, get the cash, come back’. And he’s like, ‘I’ll be back in 20 minutes’. And I’m thinking, ‘What takes 20 minutes?’ Like, it’s literally two doors down.”

Journalists from the Nine show, A Current Affair, visited Monkivitch at home. Though he did not answer the door, he may have seen the crew on CCTV and returned to pay the salon less than two hours later. He later refused to answer questions when confronted by another Nine reporter.

Hong Kong spree

In Hong Kong, Monkivitch was charged with four instances of making off without payment between April 24 and May 5, as well as a criminal damage charge, local media reported.

The lawyer failed to pay restaurant bills at the Island Shangri-La’s Cafe Too in Admiralty, at the Kowloon Shangri-La’s Cafe Kool in Tsim Sha Tsui, and at two other restaurants – one in Central and another in Wan Chai. His bill at the four eateries totalled around HK$2,039, the court heard.

The criminal damage offences relate to allegations that, on May 4, he destroyed a sales terminal at the Island Shangri-La and damaged a person’s iPhone outside the Hong Kong Museum of History in Tsim Sha Tsui.

He was released on June 5 after spending a month behind bars. He was fined HK$2,000 and was slapped with a six-week jail term suspended for 18 months, according to The Age. He was also ordered to pay HK12,539.90 to cover the damaged iPhone and unpaid bills.

A family member – who travelled to Hong Kong for the hearing – agreed to pay the fine.

Monkivitch represented himself before Magistrate David Cheung, confirming that he was unemployed given his time in custody. When asked when he planned to return to Australia, he said “today, probably,” according to The Age. He pleaded guilty without seeing the prosecution’s statement of facts.

His former employer KorumLegal told the newspaper that they had parted ways with Monkivitch.

Separately in May, he was fined HK$3,000 for two counts of making off without payment and one count of common assault. He pleaded guilty to the offences the same day, local media reported.