A former manager of a travel agency, charged by the ICAC, today (Friday) appeared in Eastern Magistracy for allegedly accepting over $40,000 in illegal rebates from tour guides for allocating to them guided tours in Japan and deceiving the company of $62,000.

The defendant, 58, former senior operations manager of a travel agency, faces seven counts of agent accepting advantages, contrary to Section 9(1)(b) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO), and seven alternative charges of fraud.

He is also charged with 21 counts of agent using document with intent to deceive his principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of POBO.

No plea was taken. The case was transferred to District Court for plea on April 9. The defendant was granted cash bail of $50,000.

The bribery charges allege that between September 2007 and January 2008, the defendant had accepted from seven tour guides of the same travel agency a total of $42,424 as illegal rebates for allocating to them guided tours in Japan.

The alternative fraud charges allege the defendant of falsely representing to the aforesaid tour guides that the illegal rebates were 'head tax' which would be wholly transmitted to the travel agency or accepted by the defendant with the permission of the said travel agency.

The remaining 21 charges allege the defendant of using documents, namely Gross Profit Analysis which contained inflated amount of tour expenses, to deceive the travel agency.

ICAC investigation revealed that the defendant had allegedly pocketed $62,893, being the total inflated sum.

The said company has rendered full assistance during ICAC's investigation.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Irene Wang.