Labour Department officer faces court for misconduct in public office
2009-5-11
An officer of the Labour Department (LD) appeared in Kowloon City Magistracy today (Monday) after being charged by the ICAC with misconduct in public office for visiting a mahjong school while on duty.
Law Hoi-fat, 50, Occupational Safety Officer of LD, pleaded not guilty to one count of misconduct in public office.
Magistrate Mr Peter Law Tak-chuen adjourned the case until June 22 for a pre-trial review.
The case arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the alleged misconduct offence.
The charge alleged that between June 18 and 23, 2008, the defendant, without reasonable excuse or justification, in the course of or in relation to his public office, wilfully and intentionally culpably misconducted himself.
The defendant was alleged to have stayed at a mahjong school on separate occasions while he was supposed to be on duty, and made false entries on the official diary and false records in office files purported to show that he visited various workplaces to carry out a survey when in fact he did not.
He was also alleged to have submitted survey forms containing opinions purportedly obtained from persons in the workplace where the survey was conducted when in fact no such opinions had been so obtained.
The defendant was granted cash bail of $10,000. He was ordered not to leave Hong Kong, reside at the reported address, and not to interfere with prosecution witnesses.
The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Eric Cheng.
Law Hoi-fat, 50, Occupational Safety Officer of LD, pleaded not guilty to one count of misconduct in public office.
Magistrate Mr Peter Law Tak-chuen adjourned the case until June 22 for a pre-trial review.
The case arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the alleged misconduct offence.
The charge alleged that between June 18 and 23, 2008, the defendant, without reasonable excuse or justification, in the course of or in relation to his public office, wilfully and intentionally culpably misconducted himself.
The defendant was alleged to have stayed at a mahjong school on separate occasions while he was supposed to be on duty, and made false entries on the official diary and false records in office files purported to show that he visited various workplaces to carry out a survey when in fact he did not.
He was also alleged to have submitted survey forms containing opinions purportedly obtained from persons in the workplace where the survey was conducted when in fact no such opinions had been so obtained.
The defendant was granted cash bail of $10,000. He was ordered not to leave Hong Kong, reside at the reported address, and not to interfere with prosecution witnesses.
The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Eric Cheng.