A restaurant proprietor has admitted to kidnapping a former worker and holding him for ransom after discovering him together with his hand within the until.
Ann Ngo, 37, is the co-owner of Mama Hong’s Vietnamese restaurant in Lane Cove, in Sydney’s leafy Lower North Shore, which turned the setting of a dramatic and bloody office dispute final yr.
In March 2022, she and her two business companions observed cash had been going lacking from the business. To resolve the thriller, they determined to put in movement delicate CCTV cameras to alert them if somebody entered the premises out of hours.
At 9.15pm on March 22, the house owners have been alerted to an intruder on the cafe.
Ngo’s two companions, who occurred to be close by, walked into the business to discover a former kitchenhand together with his hand within the until, making an attempt to retrieve the cash inside.
The ex-employee had copied the cafe’s keys and snuck into the business each few days to steal from the until.
The house owners estimated he stole a complete of $2500 from the business over a two-week interval.
According to the agreed information, Ngo’s companions grabbed the previous kitchen hand and assaulted him and minimize his hair.
After hitting him a number of occasions, the court docket paperwork reveal the companions retrieved a automotive and shoved the sufferer within the again seat.
They then collected Ngo from a suburb in Sydney’s internal west earlier than driving to the sufferer’s mom’s home in Chatswood.
According to the court docket paperwork, the 37-year-old later instructed police the business house owners hoped to “resolve it, you know, without having to go to the police”.
The sufferer’s mom was not at residence, so Ngo known as her to inform her that her son had been “stealing money from (the cafe)” and “comes every night” to pilfer from the business.
“He has taken a lot of money. If he don’t (sic) give it back, I will take him to the police now,” Ngo knowledgeable the sufferer’s mum.
His mum agreed to repay the stolen $2500 and requested for video footage of her son stealing from the business.
Ngo despatched her business’ financial institution particulars, a nonetheless picture from the CCTV footage contained in the cafe of the sufferer together with his hand within the until, and a photograph of him bleeding from the nostril within the automotive.
Once she was glad the cash was paid in full, the cafe house owners drove the sufferer to a park in Drummoyne and minimize the cable ties securing his fingers.
Ngo will probably be sentenced later this yr after pleading responsible to taking and detaining a former worker who stole hundreds of {dollars} from her business.
The 37-year-old additionally pleaded responsible to associated expenses of frequent assault and assault occasioning precise bodily hurt, which will probably be taken under consideration throughout sentencing.
She was granted conditional bail whereas she awaits sentencing, which requires her to report back to police thrice per week and never go away the state.
Ngo’s bail was various on Monday to permit her to reside in North Strathfield, though the prohibition on discussing her prison case along with her business companions stays.
She can be forbidden from contacting the sufferer or his mom.
The cafe proprietor’s bail was secured by a $100,000 surety to make sure she returns to court docket for sentencing.
