Tung Chung Station piling scam put three behind bars
2000-6-20
The District Court today (Tuesday) meted out prison terms ranging from six months to 21 months to three men for conspiring to construct substandard bored piles at Tung Chung Station Development Package II Site 4 (the project).
The court heard that amongst the 76 bored piles constructed, 66 were shortened by 0.54 metres to about 19 metres.
Li Che-hing, 51, and Yu Chun-man, 29, respectively former project manager and site engineer of I-P Foundations Ltd. (I-P Foundations), were each sentenced to one year and nine months ' imprisonment, while Ko Chi-kwong, 43, site agent of I-P Foundations, was jailed for six months.
Judge Richard Davies, in passing sentences, remarked that immediate custodial sentences were warranted, or it would give the community a wrong signal. Consideration was also taken into the fact that the defendants had carried out instructions from the ma nagement and had no financial gain in the scam, he added.
The defendants however, were reprimanded for being very selfish as the offence they committed could jeopardize the safety of human life. Substantial remedial work had to be carried out as a result of what they did.
Li and Ko were earlier found guilty on one count of conspiring with Yu, I-P Foundations staff David Hendy, Carl Voigt and others to defraud the Buildings Department and the project developer Tung Chung Station Development Company Limited (the project deve loper) over the piling works at the project.
Yu pleaded guilty to a similar conspiracy charge.
The defendants were found to have constructed the bored piles not in accordance with the site plan approved by the Buildings Department, and falsely representing full compliance.
They had also caused the Building Authority to consent to the commencement of pile cap construction and the developer to pay for the substandard piling works.
I-P Foundations was the main contractor of the foundation work for blocks H1 to H4 of the project. Maunsell was the consultant firm which supervised the foundation works. The piling works for blocks H1, H3 and H4 was sub-contracted to Sunley Engineering & Construction Company Limited.
The court heard that in July 1997, the senior management of I-P Foundations told Li and Ko that because of inadequate machinery, tight construction schedule and delay due to bad weather, bored piles for blocks H1 to H4 needed to be constructed shorter tha n the prescribed depths.
Between July 1997 and April 1998, Li and Ko had, on at least 10 occasions, instructed Yu to cut short the measuring tapes supplied to Maunsell Consultants Asia Limited (Maunsell) for measuring the bored hole depths.
It was also agreed between Li, Ko and Yu that false records on the volume of concrete used for constructing the bored piles would be produced.
Upon instructions from Li, Ko and Yu also ordered foremen and workers to cut short the steel cages so that they could be fitted into the shortened pile holes.
To cover up the scheme, Li and Ko instructed Yu to submit false reports to Maunsell and the Buildings Department. Fake core samples were also presented to Maunsell for inspection.
In January 1999, Maunsell ordered a re-examination of core samples from blocks H1 to H4, following the discovery of cracks on block H5.
Subsequent coring tests revealed that 66 out of the 76 bored piles from blocks H1 to H4 were shorter by 0.54 metres to about 19 metres, while 14 of them were constructed on foundation layer of which the rock quality was weaker than the required standard.
The project developer had paid I-P Foundations approximately $42 million for carrying out the foundation works.
The prosecution was today represented by John Marray on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Simon Ho.
The court heard that amongst the 76 bored piles constructed, 66 were shortened by 0.54 metres to about 19 metres.
Li Che-hing, 51, and Yu Chun-man, 29, respectively former project manager and site engineer of I-P Foundations Ltd. (I-P Foundations), were each sentenced to one year and nine months ' imprisonment, while Ko Chi-kwong, 43, site agent of I-P Foundations, was jailed for six months.
Judge Richard Davies, in passing sentences, remarked that immediate custodial sentences were warranted, or it would give the community a wrong signal. Consideration was also taken into the fact that the defendants had carried out instructions from the ma nagement and had no financial gain in the scam, he added.
The defendants however, were reprimanded for being very selfish as the offence they committed could jeopardize the safety of human life. Substantial remedial work had to be carried out as a result of what they did.
Li and Ko were earlier found guilty on one count of conspiring with Yu, I-P Foundations staff David Hendy, Carl Voigt and others to defraud the Buildings Department and the project developer Tung Chung Station Development Company Limited (the project deve loper) over the piling works at the project.
Yu pleaded guilty to a similar conspiracy charge.
The defendants were found to have constructed the bored piles not in accordance with the site plan approved by the Buildings Department, and falsely representing full compliance.
They had also caused the Building Authority to consent to the commencement of pile cap construction and the developer to pay for the substandard piling works.
I-P Foundations was the main contractor of the foundation work for blocks H1 to H4 of the project. Maunsell was the consultant firm which supervised the foundation works. The piling works for blocks H1, H3 and H4 was sub-contracted to Sunley Engineering & Construction Company Limited.
The court heard that in July 1997, the senior management of I-P Foundations told Li and Ko that because of inadequate machinery, tight construction schedule and delay due to bad weather, bored piles for blocks H1 to H4 needed to be constructed shorter tha n the prescribed depths.
Between July 1997 and April 1998, Li and Ko had, on at least 10 occasions, instructed Yu to cut short the measuring tapes supplied to Maunsell Consultants Asia Limited (Maunsell) for measuring the bored hole depths.
It was also agreed between Li, Ko and Yu that false records on the volume of concrete used for constructing the bored piles would be produced.
Upon instructions from Li, Ko and Yu also ordered foremen and workers to cut short the steel cages so that they could be fitted into the shortened pile holes.
To cover up the scheme, Li and Ko instructed Yu to submit false reports to Maunsell and the Buildings Department. Fake core samples were also presented to Maunsell for inspection.
In January 1999, Maunsell ordered a re-examination of core samples from blocks H1 to H4, following the discovery of cracks on block H5.
Subsequent coring tests revealed that 66 out of the 76 bored piles from blocks H1 to H4 were shorter by 0.54 metres to about 19 metres, while 14 of them were constructed on foundation layer of which the rock quality was weaker than the required standard.
The project developer had paid I-P Foundations approximately $42 million for carrying out the foundation works.
The prosecution was today represented by John Marray on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Simon Ho.