The Preah Sihanouk provincial police will send four Chinese nationals to the provincial court on Wednesday after they were arrested in Sihanoukville on Sunday for separate attempted thefts of a motorbike and $1,700 in cash.

Minor crimes bureau chief Hy Sokly said specialist officials had completed questioning the men on Tuesday.

“Tomorrow [Wednesday], I will send the four suspects to the court. They are on the same team, but committed crimes in two separate cases,” said Sokly on Tuesday.

He said police officers first arrested two suspects from Sihanoukville’s Mittapheap district – one aged 25 who lives in Commune IV’s Village 4 and a 29-year-old man from Commune II’s Village 2.

Later, two more Mittapheap district residents were arrested – a 29-year-old man from Commune IV’s Village 5 and a 42-year-old man living in Commune IV’s Village 4.

Sokly said police officers were patrolling as normal when at 3am on Sunday they arrived at the weather station in Commune III.

There, they saw two men tampering with the lock of a motorbike belonging to another Chinese national.

The police arrested the two suspects immediately and, during questioning, the men confessed to having two more accomplices.

Acting on the tip-off, the police went in search of the other two suspects and found them kicking a male Chinese national’s motorbike causing him to fall to the ground, before stealing $1,700 from the victim.

Sokly said evidence seized by the police included items the suspects used to disguise themselves – two wigs, three hats, four face masks and 10 surgical masks.

Also recovered were a device for breaking car door locks, some tools to break car ignitions and domestic door locks, a key copying device, three motorbike lock-breaking tools, two steel rods, a tool to break car windows, a safe-breaking tool, two Solex locks, five keys, a walkie-talkie, a money checking machine, two passports, a torch and six Honda AirBlade motorbikes.