A former captain of a nightclub, charged by the ICAC, was today (Friday) sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment at Eastern Magistracy for accepting monetary rewards to capture credit card data for a criminal syndicate to manufacture counterfeit credit cards .

These counterfeit cards were subsequently uttered for fraudulent purchases in Belgium, France and Germany, causing about $300,000 losses to three local banks.

Carry Chan Man-kwong, 31, formerly employed by Today's Tonnochy Nightclub (Tonnochy), earlier pleaded guilty to one count of accepting an advantage and one of possessing equipment for making a false instrument.

Magistrate Mr David Dufton reprimanded Chan for committing serious offences.

Taking into account the defendant's guilty plea, his clear record as well as the fact that he had offered assistance to the ICAC, the magistrate reduced the 24-month starting point to 15 months.

The court heard that in November 2002, Chan was approached by his friend to capture credit card data, and offered $300 to $500 for each set of data captured.

Chan agreed to the proposal. On a number of occasions in November 2002, Chan used a skimmer provided by his friend to capture customers' card data, and returned the skimmer to him.

When interviewed under caution, Chan admitted that he had used the skimmer to capture six sets of card data when processing the card payments of customers at Tonnochy, and had accepted $2,000 as rewards.

Chan knew that the data captured would be used for manufacturing counterfeit credit cards.

The management of Tonnochy had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Heath Cheung.