A Hong Kong student who starred in a popular web documentary about secondary school public exams has been placed on probation after a court agreed to give him “one last chance” following his second shoplifting offence in a year.
Eastern Court accepted a probation officer’s recommendation and handed Tang Ngai-hong a 12-month probation order on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to theft earlier this month.
The 19-year-old admitted stealing a bag of fruit and two packets of potato chips worth a total of HK$61.80 (US$7.87) from the Fresh supermarket at Kornhill Plaza North in Quarry Bay on January 5.
The offence took place just five months after Tang was fined HK$3,000 for stealing nearly HK$700 worth of food items from the Kowloon Bay branch of Japanese discount chain store Don Don Donki on May 8, 2024.
Acting Principal Magistrate David Cheung Chi-wai said he would give Tang “one last chance” given his timely plea. The defendant must maintain the peace and observe an array of conditions, including a requirement to attend psychological counselling sessions.
Tang, now a first-year student at the University of Hong Kong School of Professional and Continuing Education, was the main subject of a documentary web series about the Diploma of Secondary Education examination by YouTube channel Trial and Error.
The channel with 561,000 subscribers spent more than eight months in 2023 documenting Tang’s journey through the university entrance exam.
The 10-episode online series received overwhelmingly positive responses, with more than a million views on YouTube.
The episodes were later re-edited into a full-length documentary feature titled Once Upon a Time in HKDSE, released in cinemas in July last year. It has raked in more than HK$5 million at the box office. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
