VANCOUVER - Vancouver billionaire David Ho will serve a year’s probation and pay a $5,000 fine after admitting to charges stemming from a night of sex and cocaine at his mansion three years ago. Ting Kwok David Ho, 60, pleaded guilty on Thursday to the unlawful confinement of a woman at his home and possessing an unregistered loaded Glock semi-automatic pistol. The charges arose from an 911 call from Ho’s home in the Shaughnessy area of Vancouver on Dec. 28, 2008. He was also initially charged with possessing cocaine, but the charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement. The Crown and defence made a joint request Thursday for a suspended sentence for Ho, including one year of probation, a $5,000 fine, 45 hours of community service and attending a drug counselling program. The judge accepted and imposed that sentence, and banned Ho from possessing any weapons for 10 years. Crown prosecutor Elliot Poll, reading in court from an agreed statement of facts, said Ho contacted a woman over a Lava Life chat line and she agreed to have sex for money. Ho picked her up at her home in Delta and drove to the Keg Steakhouse, but it was closed, so they went to a McDonald’s to have a bite to eat. He then drove her to his mansion in the 7100-block of Hudson Street, where they smoked cocaine in his bedroom, did some role-playing and had sex. When she tried to leave, Ho prevented her from leaving his bedroom and his home. “He was pushing her and confining her but didn’t strike her,” the prosecutor told Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Thomas Gove. The woman called her father at 4:45 a.m., saying: “Dad, help me — I’m on a bad date.” The father heard his daughter saying, “Let me out, let me out!” The father also heard a man’s voice in the background. The prosecutor told the court that the woman, identified as K.R., eventually slid out of her shirt to get away and fell down some stairs. Ho tried pulling her back by the upper arms and ankles. She fled to the garage wearing only her bra and panties and sat in the car she arrived in. She called 911 from her cellphone but did not know the address. Ho went to the garage and showed her the car keys, offering to drive her home. She refused. She then went outside, jumped over a fence and landed hard on her ankle. She went to the home of a neighbour, who called 911. Police arrived minutes later and detained Ho. During a search of his home, police seized 13 grams of cocaine and 13 guns, one of which was unregistered. The unregistered Glock pistol was found in a drawer of Ho’s “captain’s bed.” Ho, dressed in a dark suit, sat in court with his eyes closed as the Crown read out details of the crimes the billionaire committed. The court was told the woman fractured her heel, which required surgery, and suffered a torn Achilles tendon.

Defence lawyer Len Doust told the court that Ho repeatedly offered to drive the woman home. “He wanted initially to settle her down and drive her home,” the lawyer explained. “He was constantly telling her he would drive her home.” Doust said the woman suffered agoraphobia and a fear of being murdered. Ho triggered her fear, the lawyer said, adding that the woman admitted “her conduct that night had nothing to do with Mr. Ho.” Doust said Ho didn’t want the woman to leave without her shoes, socks or coat because she would be subject to the elements. The lawyer noted there was six inches of snow on the ground and the home was not near a main street, so it would be difficult for the woman to get a taxi. The judge found that while Ho may have been sincere in his desire to drive the women home, “he went too far” and used more force than was reasonable in the circumstances. Doust said Ho is a very wealthy man who has had bodyguards in the past and has a handgun for his own protection. The gun was given to him by a bodyguard, he added. “This is not a gangster carrying a gun in a secreted manner,” the defence lawyer said. “It was purely for self-protection, which was reasonable, but it was unregistered.” Ho also pleaded guilty Thursday to breaching his bail on the first charges when he was found in possession of a switchblade knife on Feb. 12 last year while going through security at Vancouver International Airport. His bail specified he was not to possess any weapons. That was an accidental mistake because Ho was heading to China and threw his things into an old carry-on bag and didn’t realize the knife was inside, Doust said. Ho usually has someone pack for him but he packed his own bag that day and headed off to a business meeting, the lawyer said. Ho stood up in court and offered an apology to the woman he unlawfully confined. But when he turned around to apologize, the woman wasn’t in court. His lawyer told the judge that Ho’s reputation has suffered because of intense media attention in Canada, Hong Kong and China. Ho’s brother, Charles Ho, is considered a media tycoon and is chairman of the Sing Tao News Corp. Ho’s family made its fortune from its Hong Kong Tobacco Co. The wealthy heir went to university in the U.S. and first came to Canada in 1984, becoming a Canadian citizen two years later. He still holds the lease on the University Golf Club, located on the grounds of the University of B.C., his first business in Canada. At one time he owned Gray Beverage, which makes Pepsi and is the largest soft drink distributor in B.C. and Alberta. Ho previously owned the high-end dealership MCL Motor Cars and founded the now-defunct Harmony Airways airline. Former finance minister Gary Collins left the B.C. government in 2004 to become CEO of Harmony Airways. He left the company two years later.