Jail sentences for hawkers employing 'scapegoats'
2000-8-31
Two unlicenced hawkers operating in Ping Shek were each sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Kwun Tong Court today (Thursday) for “employing” an aged woman to stand in for prosecution by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).
Ma Yuk-hung, 34 and Chan King-wah, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice between January 1998 and January 2000.
The defendants were also fined $8,000 each.
The case arose from a corruption complaint alleging that some FEHD officers might have accepted bribes to arrange for “scapegoats” to be arrested during their anti-hawking raids. The corruption allegation was found to be unsubstantiated.
The court heard that Ma and Chan were respectively selling baked chestnuts and sweet potatoes put on mobile trollies in Ping Shek.
Since 1998, the defendants had regularly asked Chan Wai-chun, 82, and a person known as “Hai Poi” to act as “scapegoats” whenever FEHD officers conducted anti-hawking raids at the Ping Shek Bus Terminus.
The defendants paid the “scapegoats” a “daily wage” of $230 each for their assistance.
Between September 1999 and January 2000, Chan Wai-chun had been arrested by FEHD officers on 20 occasions. Each time she claimed that she was the stall operator responsible for the obstruction offence.
On January 12, 2000, when FEHD officers approached Ma Yuk-hung’s stall during a raid, Chan Wai-chun turned up, claiming to be the stall operator.
She was then arrested and taken to Ngau Tau Kok Police Station and charged with an obstruction offence.
On Jaunary 14, 2000, acting on information, the ICAC arrested the two defendants and Chan Wai-chun.
Upon legal advice of the Department of Justice, Chan Wai-chun had been cautioned by the ICAC.
The prosecution was today represented by Laurence Poots on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Dick Yeung.
Ma Yuk-hung, 34 and Chan King-wah, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice between January 1998 and January 2000.
The defendants were also fined $8,000 each.
The case arose from a corruption complaint alleging that some FEHD officers might have accepted bribes to arrange for “scapegoats” to be arrested during their anti-hawking raids. The corruption allegation was found to be unsubstantiated.
The court heard that Ma and Chan were respectively selling baked chestnuts and sweet potatoes put on mobile trollies in Ping Shek.
Since 1998, the defendants had regularly asked Chan Wai-chun, 82, and a person known as “Hai Poi” to act as “scapegoats” whenever FEHD officers conducted anti-hawking raids at the Ping Shek Bus Terminus.
The defendants paid the “scapegoats” a “daily wage” of $230 each for their assistance.
Between September 1999 and January 2000, Chan Wai-chun had been arrested by FEHD officers on 20 occasions. Each time she claimed that she was the stall operator responsible for the obstruction offence.
On January 12, 2000, when FEHD officers approached Ma Yuk-hung’s stall during a raid, Chan Wai-chun turned up, claiming to be the stall operator.
She was then arrested and taken to Ngau Tau Kok Police Station and charged with an obstruction offence.
On Jaunary 14, 2000, acting on information, the ICAC arrested the two defendants and Chan Wai-chun.
Upon legal advice of the Department of Justice, Chan Wai-chun had been cautioned by the ICAC.
The prosecution was today represented by Laurence Poots on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Dick Yeung.