A Customs Officer of the Customs and Excise Department (C&E), charged by the ICAC with obtaining loans totalling $115,000 by deception, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, at North Kowloon Court today (Thursday).

Leung Kwok-ho, 39, was also ordered to return the money to the victims.

Leung was earlier found guilty on five counts of theft and evasion of liability by deception. The court also ordered three alternative charges of procuring the making of an entry in a record of a bank by deception be left on file.

In sentencing, Magistrate Mr Kevin Browne reprimanded the defendant for taking advantage of the trust his friends had placed in him.

The case arose from a referral from C&E in relation to a complaint lodged against Leung that he had obtained loans without permission.

The court heard that Leung approached his friends Wong Siu-ying, Kitty Tse Kit-yan and Chao Sio-chan on separate occasions between April 4 and August 18, 1998.

Leung requested to borrow money from them, by falsely representing that he needed money to make down-payment for his purchase of a property in Fanling.

Subsequently, Leung accepted $20,000, $70,000 and $25,000 as loans from Wong, Tse and Chao respectively.

After repaying $12,000 to Wong, the defendant failed to repay the outstanding loans.

The court also heard that the defendants respectively issued Wong and Tse two post-dated cheques, presumably for repaying loans. But the cheques were bounced when the victims tried to honour them.

The prosecution was today represented by Government Counsel Chiu Wai-tin, assisted by ICAC officer Tang Chi-kong.