Hong Kong, Feb 23 (DPA) A Hong Kong teenager was sent to a detention centre Tuesday for leaving his grandmother in a morgue for more than a year after he gambled away the money to bury her.

Jobless Lai Chun, 19, received a government grant of almost $1,400 to cover funeral costs after the grandmother who raised him from the age of 11 died in August 2008.

Rather than pay for her funeral, however, he went to Macau, a one-hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, and gambled the money away, a court was told.

His grandmother's body remained in a government morgue for more than a year before eventually being buried by the city's Social Welfare Department in August 2009.

Lai pleaded guilty to theft at an earlier hearing and was Tuesday sent to a detention centre where he is expected to serve six months. Magistrate Andrew Ma told him his actions were 'disrespectful'.