Chanel employees sentenced to up to seven years in prison: here’s why

A Multimillion-Dollar theft

Four former employees of a Chanel warehouse in Hong Kong have been sentenced to prison for attempting to steal hundreds of the brand’s products. The haul included 601 bags and 123 wallets worth more than HK$19 million in total – approximately $2.4 million.

The scheme operated between June 2016 and February 2017.

Under the company’s policy at the time, products that were out of season or no longer intended for sale were routinely destroyed. According to the court, Chanel could dispose of between 10,000 and 20,000 such items every six months. The company has stressed that these figures and disposal practices apply specifically to 2017. Since 2019, Chanel has been sending obsolete and defective products to L’Atelier des Matières, where the materials are sorted and returned to the production cycle.

At the time of the thefts, the products were stored on the 23rd floor of the Goodman Interlink logistics center in Tsing Yi. Under standard procedure, they were supposed to be transported to the fifth floor, where they would be destroyed.

Instead, the employees decided to exploit the system and began hiding the products inside the warehouse.

How the Scheme Worked

The plot dated back to 2016, when Ho Tung-shan and Ho Tsz-yin hid 90 bags. Chanel’s security team discovered the theft but did not report it to the police.

The plan later evolved into a much larger scheme involving two more employees. The court identified Ng Yiu-lun as the mastermind. He was the only one of the four who had the password to the freight elevator needed to move goods between floors.

According to the court, Ng Yiu-lun offered his accomplices up to HK$50,000.

Chanel management, however, became suspicious and began monitoring the employees through surveillance cameras. Footage showed two workers packing products into boxes and hiding them in a remote part of the warehouse.

On February 2, 2017, the men attempted to remove the goods from the premises. They moved 33 boxes of products to the freight elevator and then began carrying them to a rented van.

But they never managed to complete the plan. An assistant manager stopped them in the parking lot, opened the boxes, discovered the Chanel products and called the police. All four participants were arrested later that day.

Every item the employees had risked their freedom for was eventually returned to Chanel.

The products were then destroyed – exactly as the brand had originally intended.

The verdict nearly a decade later

Hong Kong’s High Court handed down different prison terms to the defendants. Ng Yiu-lun, identified as the mastermind of the scheme, was sentenced to seven years in prison. Cheung Ka-wai, who also took part in the theft, received five years and three months. The other two participants, Ho Tung-shan and Ho Tsz-yin, were each sentenced to four years.

The final sentences, however, were reduced by six to nine months. The judge took into account that the stolen goods were returned to Chanel immediately after they were discovered. The court also considered the fact that the final verdict came almost a decade after the crime due to the lengthy legal proceedings.

And now for some brighter news. We recently reported on Coco Chanel’s restored residence on the French Riviera. The main goal of the project was to revive the authentic atmosphere of the 1930s.

Photo: depositphotos