Reporter admits bribing police communications officers for confidential crime information
2000-5-22
A reporter of Apple Daily Limited , charged by the ICAC, admitted at the District Court today (Monday) that he had paid bribes to two police communications officers on a monthly basis to obtain confidential crime reports.
Lau Kong-kwun, 48, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to offer bribes to Senior Police Communications Officer Yeung Kai-hing and Police Communications Officer (PCO) Tsang Ping-lam for the two officers to provide confidential information concerning police investigations between June 1997 and November 29 last year.
Judge Day ordered the remaining 20 charges to be left on file.
Yeung, 46, earlier pleaded guilty to six counts of accepting bribes from Lau. Tsang, 51, who pleaded not guilty to 12 corruption charges, is currently on trial.
The judge adjourned sentencing Lau and Yeung until May 30 this year. Lau was remanded in the custody of the Correctional Services Department, and Yeung continued to be put under ICAC custody.
The court heard that Lau knew Yeung and Tsang when he worked as a PCO at the Regional Command and Control Centre (RCCC) of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) from November 1979 to February 1988.
After joining the Apple Daily Limited as a reporter in June 1995, Lau was assigned to work in the paper's City Crime Unit.
In May 1997, Lau met Yeung, who was also a serving Auxiliary Police Sergeant, at a function at the Auxiliary Police Headquarters.
In early December 1997, Lau offered to pay Yeung $6,000 as a monthly reward for providing police crime information on cases of special interest or with news value on a daily basis.
Yeung agreed to the deal. Lau started to pay Yeung a monthly bribe of $6,000 in December 1997.
Lau had subscribed a number of mobile phones for use by Yeung and Tsang, and they used coded messages in communications.
The court learnt that Yeung usually sent information to Lau via facsimile transmission, but he sometimes handed some copies of crime reports or other confidential information to Lau.
Since June 1998, Lau increased the monthly bribe payment to $8,000.
Yeung met Lau about five times a week. Information provided was related to a number of cases of interest, including rape, indecent assault, incest, child abuse, attempted wounding, attempted burglary, criminal intimidation, recovery of pistol, missing pe rsons, and using chloroform to commit crime.
Yeung had also supplied Lau with a copy of the draft HKPF Internal Guideline on Y2K Contingency Plan and a copy of the Operations Exigency of the RCCC.
Between December 1997 and November 29 last year, Lau had paid Yeung bribes totalling $192,000.
The court was also told that in June 1997, Lau made a similar deal with Tsang, who was attached to the RCCC of the North Territories North Headquarters. It was agreed that a monthly bribe of $4,000 would be paid.
Lau admitted that between June 1997 and October 1999, he had paid Tsang a total of $116,000 to obtain police information.
The prosecution was today represented by Nicholas Adams on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officers Luk Wai-tak and Hanna Chan Lim-hang.
Lau Kong-kwun, 48, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to offer bribes to Senior Police Communications Officer Yeung Kai-hing and Police Communications Officer (PCO) Tsang Ping-lam for the two officers to provide confidential information concerning police investigations between June 1997 and November 29 last year.
Judge Day ordered the remaining 20 charges to be left on file.
Yeung, 46, earlier pleaded guilty to six counts of accepting bribes from Lau. Tsang, 51, who pleaded not guilty to 12 corruption charges, is currently on trial.
The judge adjourned sentencing Lau and Yeung until May 30 this year. Lau was remanded in the custody of the Correctional Services Department, and Yeung continued to be put under ICAC custody.
The court heard that Lau knew Yeung and Tsang when he worked as a PCO at the Regional Command and Control Centre (RCCC) of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) from November 1979 to February 1988.
After joining the Apple Daily Limited as a reporter in June 1995, Lau was assigned to work in the paper's City Crime Unit.
In May 1997, Lau met Yeung, who was also a serving Auxiliary Police Sergeant, at a function at the Auxiliary Police Headquarters.
In early December 1997, Lau offered to pay Yeung $6,000 as a monthly reward for providing police crime information on cases of special interest or with news value on a daily basis.
Yeung agreed to the deal. Lau started to pay Yeung a monthly bribe of $6,000 in December 1997.
Lau had subscribed a number of mobile phones for use by Yeung and Tsang, and they used coded messages in communications.
The court learnt that Yeung usually sent information to Lau via facsimile transmission, but he sometimes handed some copies of crime reports or other confidential information to Lau.
Since June 1998, Lau increased the monthly bribe payment to $8,000.
Yeung met Lau about five times a week. Information provided was related to a number of cases of interest, including rape, indecent assault, incest, child abuse, attempted wounding, attempted burglary, criminal intimidation, recovery of pistol, missing pe rsons, and using chloroform to commit crime.
Yeung had also supplied Lau with a copy of the draft HKPF Internal Guideline on Y2K Contingency Plan and a copy of the Operations Exigency of the RCCC.
Between December 1997 and November 29 last year, Lau had paid Yeung bribes totalling $192,000.
The court was also told that in June 1997, Lau made a similar deal with Tsang, who was attached to the RCCC of the North Territories North Headquarters. It was agreed that a monthly bribe of $4,000 would be paid.
Lau admitted that between June 1997 and October 1999, he had paid Tsang a total of $116,000 to obtain police information.
The prosecution was today represented by Nicholas Adams on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officers Luk Wai-tak and Hanna Chan Lim-hang.