Police Communications Officer admits taking $116,000 to provide tip-offs
2000-5-25
A Police Communications Officer, charged by the ICAC, admitted at the District Court today (Thursday) that he had accepted $116,000 in bribes for leaking out confidential crime information to a reporter.
Tsang Ping-lam, 51, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of accepting bribes from Lau Kong-kwun, reporter of Apple Daily Limited , for providing confidential information concerning police investigations between June 1997 and October last year.
Judge Day ordered the two remaining charges to be left on file.
Lau, 48, and Senior Police Communications Officer Yeung Kai-hing, 46, earlier pleaded guilty to two and six bribery offences respectively.
All three defendants will be sentenced next Tuesday (May 30).
Lau and Tsang were remanded in the custody of the Correctional Services Department, while Yeung continued to be put under ICAC custody.
The court heard that Tsang and Lau got to know each other when they were both employed as Police Communications Assistants at the Regional Command and Control Centre (RCCC) of Hong Kong Island.
In June 1997, they met on a street. Lau offered to pay Tsang $4,000 as a monthly reward for Tsang, attached to the RCCC of the North Territories North Headquarters, to provide him with police incident reports on a daily basis.
Tsang agreed to the deal. Lau started to pay Tsang a monthly bribe of $4,000 in June 1997 until October last year.
Lau had subscribed a number of mobile telephones for use by Tsang to communicate with each other and pass over police information.
Tsang used to download the incident reports from his office computer and fax them to Lau’s home or office. Sometimes, he handed the computer printouts to Lau.
The reports which were classified documents and restricted to authorised persons included details of police cases; date, time and scene of crime; and background information of victims, witnesses, arrested persons and wanted persons.
Some of these reports were subsequently published in Apple Daily .
The prosecution was today represented by Nicholas Adams on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officers Luk Wai-tak and Hanna Chan Lim-hang.
Tsang Ping-lam, 51, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of accepting bribes from Lau Kong-kwun, reporter of Apple Daily Limited , for providing confidential information concerning police investigations between June 1997 and October last year.
Judge Day ordered the two remaining charges to be left on file.
Lau, 48, and Senior Police Communications Officer Yeung Kai-hing, 46, earlier pleaded guilty to two and six bribery offences respectively.
All three defendants will be sentenced next Tuesday (May 30).
Lau and Tsang were remanded in the custody of the Correctional Services Department, while Yeung continued to be put under ICAC custody.
The court heard that Tsang and Lau got to know each other when they were both employed as Police Communications Assistants at the Regional Command and Control Centre (RCCC) of Hong Kong Island.
In June 1997, they met on a street. Lau offered to pay Tsang $4,000 as a monthly reward for Tsang, attached to the RCCC of the North Territories North Headquarters, to provide him with police incident reports on a daily basis.
Tsang agreed to the deal. Lau started to pay Tsang a monthly bribe of $4,000 in June 1997 until October last year.
Lau had subscribed a number of mobile telephones for use by Tsang to communicate with each other and pass over police information.
Tsang used to download the incident reports from his office computer and fax them to Lau’s home or office. Sometimes, he handed the computer printouts to Lau.
The reports which were classified documents and restricted to authorised persons included details of police cases; date, time and scene of crime; and background information of victims, witnesses, arrested persons and wanted persons.
Some of these reports were subsequently published in Apple Daily .
The prosecution was today represented by Nicholas Adams on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officers Luk Wai-tak and Hanna Chan Lim-hang.