Four former employees of a sauna house, charged by the ICAC for allegedly accepting $60,000 in bribes from masseuses for referring more business to them, appeared in Kowloon City Magistracy today (Wednesday).

The defendants were Lei Pek-ha, 45, former manageress of Lotus Sauna Court (Lotus); Liza Choy, 35, former assistant manager of Lotus; Tong Ling-hung, 34, and Ng Hau-lin, 32, both former assistant supervisors of Lotus.

They pleaded not guilty to a total of 12 counts of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to Section 9(1)(b) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.

Magistrate Mr Colin MacKintosh adjourned the case until January 7, 2004 for a pre-trial review.

Three of the charges alleged that Lei had accepted $10,000 in total from two masseuses as rewards for referring more customers to them.

Choy faced seven offences, alleging her of accepting $42,000 in total from two other masseuses for the same reason.

Tong and Ng each faced one count of accepting $4,000 from a masseuse for the same reason.

The alleged offences took place between June 1, 2001 and January 7, 2003.

The defendants were each granted cash bail of $5,000. They were also ordered not to interfere with prosecution witnesses.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Polly Tse.