City worker plunges to death during apartment showround

Jan 11 2008

A CITY worker from Warrington plunged to his death from a 10th-floor luxury penthouse he had arranged to view, it was reported today.

Vincent Ma fell 100ft when he dived from an £800,000 apartment he was viewing in Discovery Dock in London’s Canary Wharf in what appears to be a pre-planned suicide bid.

It is reported the £150,000-a-year creative director dived on to a ledge and through a window in front of a horrified estate agent who was showing him round the upmarket property.

It is understood that police who attended the scene found a suicide note to his parents, who still live in Warrington, in his pocket.

Mr Ma’s office looked out on the flats at Discovery Dock and are the highest residential block in the area.

The day before his death it is believed that he rang the estate agent to arrange an appointment to view the apartment, telling the agent that money was no object.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said police were called to the apartments at 3.30pm on January 8 and a 33-year-old man was declared dead at the scene.

Officers are not treating the death as suspicious.

Mr Ma’s father Yiu Ma, 60, an undertaker from Warrington, Cheshire, is understood to now be travelling to London with his wife to identify the body.

He said: “He was once a happy boy who had time for everybody.

“He was always smiling and very talkative, always planning for the future and his career.

“Vincent was an extremely intelligent young man and a talented artist - he would always be drawing.

“He gained a 2:1 degree from Reading University in Graphic Design and we were very proud.

“After university he moved to London and became increasingly obsessed with money.

“In 2003 he stopped answering his phone and wasn’t speaking to friends.

“We tried the police and they said he no longer wanted contact with us.

“He would talk about nothing else, how much he was earning in his job and what cars he could buy.

“The last time we saw him was Christmas in 2003.

“ It was a normal family celebration and there was nothing to suggest that he was about to severe all contact with us.

“Since then he has kept the same number, but never answers his phone to us and wasn’t speaking to friends.

His Mother Kwai Chang Ma, 57, said she was “heartbroken” by the tragic death.

She said that her son was “happy and intelligent” but said his success in life had all seemed to begin unravelling.

“He was a loving son before he moved to London, he always had time for the family,” she said.

“But even when his cousins would e-mail to say they wanted to visit him he would write back and say ‘who are you? I don’t know you.’

“We just don’t know what happened. The coroner has told us that there is a letter in his pocket.

“We are travelling down and hoping that we can answer all the questions that have been eating away at our hearts for years.”