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Beijing/Hong Kong: By the time Australian lawyer Samuel Monkivitch was charged by Hong Kong police for a dine-and-dash spree across the city that targeted restaurants and five-star hotels, his reputation was well known among the city’s dining scene.
On social media site Threads, Hongkongers circulated footage of Monkivitch being pursued by restaurant staff into the city’s streets chasing the unpaid bills, being physically restrained by citizens outside a venue, and abusing a bystander who filmed him as he fled a Chinese restaurant.
“Mate, do you want your head smashed in?” Monkivitch says in one video, which shows him slapping the hand of the man recording him.
In another clip, he is recorded on the street apologising to staff who are showing him his bill and insisting he pay.
“I will pay this man, no problem,” he says pointing to a man standing nearby. “I do not want any trouble. I do not want any police anywhere near me.”
Monkivitch is in jail in Hong Kong after being detained on May 7 on four charges of “making off without payment” and two counts of “criminal damage” charges. Police allege the spree occurred between April 25 and May 5.
He was arrested after appearing in Hong Kong’s Eastern Magistrates’ Court earlier that day on a separate string of dine-and-dash offences. He pleaded guilty and paid a $HK3000 ($536) fine for fleeing two businesses – a Chinese restaurant and a massage parlour – without paying, and to a common assault charge for striking the hand of the bystander who filmed him, the South China Morning Post reported.
On Tuesday, staff at the Chinese restaurant in the city’s Causeway Bay area said Monkivitch had appeared “normal” when he sat down for a meal in March. He skipped out on a bill of HK$639 ($114.50), one of the offences to which he pleaded guilty in his first court hearing.
“He came to eat during lunchtime, and stood up to leave without settling the bill. He told us he was going ‘shopping’. I think he seemed to say he’d come back. A colleague chased him out the door but I’m not sure what happened afterwards,” the staff member said.
“We’ve never encountered something like this.”
Monkivitch’s former employer, KorumLegal, a Hong Kong-based law firm, confirmed to this masthead that he no longer worked for the company and condemned his behaviour.
“KorumLegal is aware of recent media and social media content involving a former consultant who has not been associated with the company since October 2025,” chief executive Titus Rahiri said in a statement.
“Neither the behaviour shown nor the individual reflect or represent KorumLegal, which operates with the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and respect for the law.”
Monkivitch’s fresh charges relate to running out on bills at four restaurants, firstly at a Chinese restaurant on April 24 in Hong Kong Island’s Central district, and then a buffet at the Island Shangri-La hotel on May 4. Police allege he also destroyed a payment machine at the hotel. He is then accused of fleeing after a meal at a Japanese restaurant that same day.
The next day, he allegedly left without paying for a meal at the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel in the high-end tourist hub of Tsim Sha Tsui. He has also been charged with destroying an iPhone 15 Pro Max in the same neighbourhood on the same day.
His total unpaid bills across the four venues is HK$2039 ($364.57). His case is due to return to court on June 5.
Attempts to contact Monkivitch’s family in Australia have been unsuccessful.
On Tuesday, a ramen restaurant in city’s Wan Chai area was displaying Monkivitch’s photo in its window front, claiming he had dined at the group’s establishments and left without paying.
The restaurant’s manager said she insisted Monkivitch pay upfront before placing any further orders when he last dined at the venue.
“He protested why he was required to pay upfront. I said: ‘you’re very famous now, you know what you did’.”
“Am I famous? What’s the reason and where did you see me?,” she recalled him saying. “I told him [that] everyone knows him.”
In his earlier court hearing over the initial spate of charges, Monkivitch told the magistrate that he was unemployed, had suffered “serious reputation risk” and was in a “precarious position”, adding that he had been affected by the recent death of his father, local press reported.
“I am not allowed to leave Hong Kong to pursue [a new job] in Australia,” he was reported as saying in court, where he represented himself.
“The economic cost to me has been enormous.”
He was fined $HK3000 and ordered to use his bail money to pay back what he owed the two businesses from which he fled before being arrested on the fresh charges shortly after.
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was aware of Monkivitch’s situation.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to an Australian detained in Hong Kong. Owing to our privacy obligations, we are unable to provide further comment,” the spokesperson said.
Monkivitch is registered as a lawyer with the Victorian Legal Services Board, which states he acts in finance, corporate, commercial and cybersecurity matters for KorumLegal, the Hong Kong-headquartered firm providing contract services mostly to fintech companies.
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