Ex-CSD officer guilty of soliciting and accepting roast poultry from inmate’s mother
2020-5-27
A former Assistant Officer I of the Correctional Services Department (CSD), charged by the ICAC, was today (May 27) convicted at the Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts of soliciting and accepting roast poultry from the mother of an inmate during visitations around Lunar New Year.
Wan Chi-leung, 56, was found guilty of two charges – one of prescribed officer soliciting an advantage and one of prescribed officer accepting an advantage, contrary to Section 3 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
Magistrate Joseph To Ho-shing adjourned the case to June 11 for sentence, pending a community service order report. The defendant was granted cash bail.
The court heard that at the material time, the defendant was the officer-in-charge of the Visit Room Unit of Pik Uk Correctional Institution (PUCI), overseeing the admission of visitors paying visits to inmates remanded there. The mother of an inmate who was incarcerated at PUCI paid frequent visits to the institution and came to know the defendant in May 2017.
After knowing that the inmate’s father operated a Chinese barbecue shop, the defendant repeatedly asked the mother, once in the presence of her husband, to bring him a roast goose drumstick between August 2017 and January 2018. When the defendant was asked if there would be any trouble to bring him a roast goose drumstick, he only smiled. The couple ignored his demands.
When the mother attended PUCI on Lunar New Year’s Eve, February 15, 2018, the defendant solicited a roast goose drumstick from her, and asked her to bring it to him on the second day of Lunar New Year, February 17, 2018.
On February 17, 2018, the mother went to PUCI before noon and placed two boxes of roast duck on a desk usually used by the defendant. The defendant smiled at her and thanked her with a hand gesture.
About two hours later, the defendant carried the boxes of roast duck under the coverage of his jacket and went to the staff barrack, the court heard.
The case arose from a corruption complaint referred by the CSD, which had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.
The prosecution was today represented by prosecuting counsel Cannise Chan, assisted by ICAC officer Swing Chan.
Wan Chi-leung, 56, was found guilty of two charges – one of prescribed officer soliciting an advantage and one of prescribed officer accepting an advantage, contrary to Section 3 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
Magistrate Joseph To Ho-shing adjourned the case to June 11 for sentence, pending a community service order report. The defendant was granted cash bail.
The court heard that at the material time, the defendant was the officer-in-charge of the Visit Room Unit of Pik Uk Correctional Institution (PUCI), overseeing the admission of visitors paying visits to inmates remanded there. The mother of an inmate who was incarcerated at PUCI paid frequent visits to the institution and came to know the defendant in May 2017.
After knowing that the inmate’s father operated a Chinese barbecue shop, the defendant repeatedly asked the mother, once in the presence of her husband, to bring him a roast goose drumstick between August 2017 and January 2018. When the defendant was asked if there would be any trouble to bring him a roast goose drumstick, he only smiled. The couple ignored his demands.
When the mother attended PUCI on Lunar New Year’s Eve, February 15, 2018, the defendant solicited a roast goose drumstick from her, and asked her to bring it to him on the second day of Lunar New Year, February 17, 2018.
On February 17, 2018, the mother went to PUCI before noon and placed two boxes of roast duck on a desk usually used by the defendant. The defendant smiled at her and thanked her with a hand gesture.
About two hours later, the defendant carried the boxes of roast duck under the coverage of his jacket and went to the staff barrack, the court heard.
The case arose from a corruption complaint referred by the CSD, which had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.
The prosecution was today represented by prosecuting counsel Cannise Chan, assisted by ICAC officer Swing Chan.