Ever remember the case of Grace Mugabe, the wife of Zimbabwe leader Rubert Mugabe, embracing the headlines last year for assaulting a photographer? Fortunately for her as wife of a president, she was saved from prosecution, thanks to the diplomatic immunity she and other people of the same stature possess.

Besides that high profile case, there are lesser offenses made by foreign envoys in Hong Kong. It can be as simple as failure or refusal to pay parking tickets. Nonetheless they are still offenses that would warrant punishments if perpetrators were “low profile” citizens.

Out of the city’s 59 consulates, 29 of them have errant envoys taking advantage of immunity accorded to them by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. However, the number of offenses committed has decreased over the years; in 2005, 28 parking tickets were waived, last year only nine.

Hungary, Russia, Israel, Bangladesh and Greece are the consulates having the most number of offenses — most of which involved parking tickets recorded.

Other offenses include a diplomat from the United States failing to display a valid lisense, an official from Vietnamese consulate who figured in a traffic violation and, of course Grace Mugabe’s assault.

In Hong Kong, there are around 1,800 consular staff and family members entitled to the same privileges as those mentioned offenders. I doubt most of them are likely to abuse these privileges but it pays to stay away from those who easily get themselves into trouble. Before we question Vienna Convention’s existence, our hope is that foreign governments appoint sensible people to these posts instead of putting those with one-track mind in exile, disguised as ambassadors or consulate officials.