A former Land Surveyor of the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK), charged by the ICAC, admitted that he had cheated salary of more than $78,800 by falsely claiming that he had turned up for duty on 28 extra days.

The court heard that on all those “extra” days, Cheung Kwok-hin was outside Hong Kong and absent from work.

Cheung, 50, pleaded guilty to 15 counts of using documents with intent to deceive his principal under Section 9(3) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.

Magistrate Mr Ian Candy said the offence committed by the defendant was serious and constituted a breach of trust to his employer.

The case was adjourned to Wednesday (July 19) for sentence. The defendant was granted bail of $50,000 in cash, and was ordered not to leave Hong Kong.

The court heard that Cheung, while employed by AAHK, was a site operations staff responsible for surveying duties at the New Airport construction site in Chek Lap Kok, Lantau. He was entitled to compensation allowances for extra days of work outside the standard schedule.

Between April 1996 and December 1997, Cheung falsely declared on a number of Monthly Work Related Allowance Record Sheets that he had worked for a total of 28 extra days.

ICAC investigations revealed that according to the Immigration Department’s travel records, during the period, Cheung had travelled to the Mainland, Canada and Macau on numerous occasions.

As a result of his false declarations, AAHK had paid Cheung $32,592 in total as compensation and $46,248 as salary.

The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Winnie Ho, assisted by ICAC officer Bill Ng Siu-kei.