Trio face court for alleged champerty over $7m civil claims
2013-3-4
A consultant of a consultancy company and two solicitors appeared at Eastern Magistracy today (Monday) after being charged by the ICAC for alleged champerty in civil actions for compensation claims totalling over $7 million in relation to traffic and occupational accidents.
Ip Hon-ming, 60, a consultant of Quickway Professional Consultants Limited (Quickway); Gary Yeong Yun-hong, 44, and his wife Juliana Lo Yuen-ching, 49, both partners of Yeong & Co., a solicitors firm, faced five joint charges of champerty, contrary to Com mon Law. Additionally, Ip and Yeong jointly faced 20 similar offences, while Ip alone faced a similar offence.
No pleas were taken. Acting Principal Magistrate Ms Bina Chainrai transferred the case to the District Court for plea on March 22.
The case arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the above alleged offences.
At the material time, Ip was a consultant of Quickway, a consultancy company engaged in processing compensation claims for its clients. Yeong and Lo, both practising solicitors, were partners of Yeong & Co.
The charges alleged that between November 2001 and April 2007, the defendants unlawfully made champertous bargains with 26 clients to unlawfully maintain civil actions in Hong Kong involving those clients as plaintiffs and various companies and persons as defendants.
It was alleged that in those civil actions, the compensation claims for personal injuries in 26 traffic and occupational accidents amounted to over $7 million.
The defendants were each granted cash bail of $10,000, and ordered not to interfere with prosecution witnesses.
The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Phoebe Tsang.
Ip Hon-ming, 60, a consultant of Quickway Professional Consultants Limited (Quickway); Gary Yeong Yun-hong, 44, and his wife Juliana Lo Yuen-ching, 49, both partners of Yeong & Co., a solicitors firm, faced five joint charges of champerty, contrary to Com mon Law. Additionally, Ip and Yeong jointly faced 20 similar offences, while Ip alone faced a similar offence.
No pleas were taken. Acting Principal Magistrate Ms Bina Chainrai transferred the case to the District Court for plea on March 22.
The case arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the above alleged offences.
At the material time, Ip was a consultant of Quickway, a consultancy company engaged in processing compensation claims for its clients. Yeong and Lo, both practising solicitors, were partners of Yeong & Co.
The charges alleged that between November 2001 and April 2007, the defendants unlawfully made champertous bargains with 26 clients to unlawfully maintain civil actions in Hong Kong involving those clients as plaintiffs and various companies and persons as defendants.
It was alleged that in those civil actions, the compensation claims for personal injuries in 26 traffic and occupational accidents amounted to over $7 million.
The defendants were each granted cash bail of $10,000, and ordered not to interfere with prosecution witnesses.
The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Phoebe Tsang.