Posted at 3:53 p.m., Monday, January 7, 2008
Copper offense leads to $18,500 fine, probation
Advertiser Staff
A scrap metal dealer has been fined $18,500 and sentenced to five years of probation for violating the state copper theft law.Kyung Hee Chon was charged last year following an undercover police investigation. She failed to complete paperwork verifying the identities of individuals offering scrap copper for sale.
Chon had previously pleaded guilty to charges connected with the purchase of a 653-pound spool of copper wiring owned by Hawaiian Electric Co.
Circuit Judge Richard Pollack refused a defense request to defer Chon's guilty plea to the new charges. But the judge withheld imposition of a six-month jail sentence, citing her cooperation in an investigation by the state attorney general's office of an unrelated burglary case.
Chon was an employee of Aiea Recycling, a business that has since closed.
She agreed to repay the fines at a rate of $400 per month. Pollack also ordered the defendant to complete 100 hours of community service.
