The ICAC today (Monday) charged a newspaper stall operator and two fruit stall operators for allegedly arranging for "scapegoats" to face prosecution by the then Urban Services Department (USD) and admit obstruction offences in court.

Leung Sui-kau, 49, Liu King-chuk, 57, and Lee Ying-mei, 60, will appear in Eastern Court at 9:30 am tomorrow (Tuesday) to face a total of six counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice between March 1996 and April last year.

The charges alleged that Leung, Liu and Lee had conspired to prevent the prosecution of themselves for offences of causing obstruction in public places in Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, by falsely representing that either Leung Lan or Ling Ngan-foon was responsible for the offences.

In April last year, a magistrate of the Eastern Court rejected the guilty pleas of three "scapegoats" for hawking offences as he suspected that the defendants were not the real offenders and the case might involve the collaboration and connivance of some USD officers.

The magistrate then ordered the Department of Justice to refer such cases to the ICAC for investigation as corruption was suspected.

ICAC enquiries revealed a number of stall operators, including Leung, Liu and Lee, had allegedly used "scapegoats" to be prosecuted for hawking or obstruction offences without any intervention from the USD officers responsible for the enforcement action.

The then USD had rendered full assistance to the ICAC. Enquiries are continuing.

Leung, Liu and Lee were released on ICAC bail, pending court appearances tomorrow.