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Addiction was deadly
Gambler admits to meat-cleaver slaying
By BRIAN GRAY, TORONTO SUN
A gambling addict pleaded guilty to manslaughter yesterday in the March 2000 meat-cleaver slaying of a loan shark he owed $48,000.
Former Markham real estate agent Wai Leung (Patrick) Lee, now 50, admitted he threw hot cooking oil on Hing Kuen Tsang, 38, before slashing him several times with a meat cleaver.
The facts were read into the court record by assistant Crown attorney Andrew Locke before Justice Paul Taylor in the Finch Ave. W. courthouse as Lee sat silently in the prisoner's box, his head bowed while he listened.
The killing took place in a vacant house on Steeles Ave. E. that Lee was trying to sell to Tsang to cover half of his outstanding debt. Locke said Lee hoped to use his commission as payment, despite having no authority to sell the house, owned by a man who lived in Singapore.
Tsang pulled the meat cleaver when negotiations soured and Lee responded by showering him with oil that was warming in a wok.
Tsang suffered second- and third-degree burns and the two wrestled for the cleaver before Lee eventually won out.
"Mr. Lee felt very menaced," his lawyer Robert Nuttall told Taylor. "It was made very clear to my client by the deceased what happened to others that didn't cooperate."
Taylor heard that between January 1997 and March 2000, Lee overextended his $100,000 credit at Casino Rama, near Orillia, and looked to other sources to fund his gambling.
Lee also pleaded guilty to defrauding the CIBC of $70,000 and a real estate client of $200,000. He will be sentenced on Sept. 6.
Gambler admits to meat-cleaver slaying
By BRIAN GRAY, TORONTO SUN
A gambling addict pleaded guilty to manslaughter yesterday in the March 2000 meat-cleaver slaying of a loan shark he owed $48,000.
Former Markham real estate agent Wai Leung (Patrick) Lee, now 50, admitted he threw hot cooking oil on Hing Kuen Tsang, 38, before slashing him several times with a meat cleaver.
The facts were read into the court record by assistant Crown attorney Andrew Locke before Justice Paul Taylor in the Finch Ave. W. courthouse as Lee sat silently in the prisoner's box, his head bowed while he listened.
The killing took place in a vacant house on Steeles Ave. E. that Lee was trying to sell to Tsang to cover half of his outstanding debt. Locke said Lee hoped to use his commission as payment, despite having no authority to sell the house, owned by a man who lived in Singapore.
Tsang pulled the meat cleaver when negotiations soured and Lee responded by showering him with oil that was warming in a wok.
Tsang suffered second- and third-degree burns and the two wrestled for the cleaver before Lee eventually won out.
"Mr. Lee felt very menaced," his lawyer Robert Nuttall told Taylor. "It was made very clear to my client by the deceased what happened to others that didn't cooperate."
Taylor heard that between January 1997 and March 2000, Lee overextended his $100,000 credit at Casino Rama, near Orillia, and looked to other sources to fund his gambling.
Lee also pleaded guilty to defrauding the CIBC of $70,000 and a real estate client of $200,000. He will be sentenced on Sept. 6.