Trio jailed for $450,000 false claims for lost registered mails
2016-10-28
A former officer of the Hongkong Post (HKPost) and two others, charged by the ICAC, were today (October 28) sentenced to various jail terms up to 29 months at the District Court for conspiracy to defraud HKPost of compensation claims totalling $451,674 for lost registered mails.
Chan Ka-yau, 32, former Customer Service Officer of HKPost, received a jail term of 29 months. Cho Shek-hang, 31, unemployed, was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment, while Ng Chun-yin, 33, system analyst, was jailed for 20 months.
In sentencing, Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi said Chan’s act constituted a serious breach of trust as he acted as the instigator of the scam, and reprimanded Chan for his greediness in making the false claims.
The judge also ordered the defendants to pay $150,558 each as restitution to HKPost.
On Wednesday (October 26), the defendants pleaded guilty to a joint charge of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to the common law.
The case arose from a corruption complaint referred by HKPost. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the above offence.
The court heard that at the material time, Chan was a Customer Service Officer of HKPost posted to its Mail Tracing Office (MTO). Cho and Ng were former schoolmates of Chan.
According to the policy of HKPost, the sender of a registered mail is eligible for compensation up to a maximum of $320 plus postage if the mail is lost during delivery.
Between May 5, 2012 and January 7, 2015, Cho and Ng sent 3,039 mails by registered post in the name of “Mr Cho”, “Mr Ng” or “Mr Choi” to various persons in Pakistan, the Philippines, India, Italy, the United Kingdom and Kuwait.
MTO later received mail tracking enquiries in relation to 3,022 of those registered mails, which were stated to have contained ball pens of a certain brand at $460 or $500 each.
After making enquiries with the post offices in those countries, MTO informed “Mr Cho” and “Mr Ng” that they were entitled to claim compensation for 1,614 mails which could not be traced and were regarded as lost by HKPost.
The court heard that between August 2012 and April 2015, MTO received 1,531 reply slips, of which the maximum amount of compensation of $320 plus postage were claimed with the name of Cho or Ng to be the payee of the cheque.
On May 4, 2015, Chan, Cho and Ng met to discuss how to make documents, including invoices issued by a pen company and non-receipt declarations, to support their claims. Subsequently, Cho and Ng submitted those documents to MTO.
Believing that the information provided by the trio was true and accurate, HKPost eventually released a total sum of over $451,674 to Cho and Ng as compensation for 1,398 of the 1,531 registered mails. In fact, the items posted by Cho and Ng were not ball pens of that brand and the pen company did not exist.
Chan, Cho and Ng were arrested by ICAC officers on May 21, 2015. Among the items seized from Chan were three spreadsheets containing details about the 3,039 items posted by Cho and Ng, the court was told.
HKPost had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation.
The prosecution was today represented by Acting Senior Public Prosecutor
Kasmine Hui, assisted by ICAC officer Eric Chan.
Chan Ka-yau, 32, former Customer Service Officer of HKPost, received a jail term of 29 months. Cho Shek-hang, 31, unemployed, was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment, while Ng Chun-yin, 33, system analyst, was jailed for 20 months.
In sentencing, Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi said Chan’s act constituted a serious breach of trust as he acted as the instigator of the scam, and reprimanded Chan for his greediness in making the false claims.
The judge also ordered the defendants to pay $150,558 each as restitution to HKPost.
On Wednesday (October 26), the defendants pleaded guilty to a joint charge of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to the common law.
The case arose from a corruption complaint referred by HKPost. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the above offence.
The court heard that at the material time, Chan was a Customer Service Officer of HKPost posted to its Mail Tracing Office (MTO). Cho and Ng were former schoolmates of Chan.
According to the policy of HKPost, the sender of a registered mail is eligible for compensation up to a maximum of $320 plus postage if the mail is lost during delivery.
Between May 5, 2012 and January 7, 2015, Cho and Ng sent 3,039 mails by registered post in the name of “Mr Cho”, “Mr Ng” or “Mr Choi” to various persons in Pakistan, the Philippines, India, Italy, the United Kingdom and Kuwait.
MTO later received mail tracking enquiries in relation to 3,022 of those registered mails, which were stated to have contained ball pens of a certain brand at $460 or $500 each.
After making enquiries with the post offices in those countries, MTO informed “Mr Cho” and “Mr Ng” that they were entitled to claim compensation for 1,614 mails which could not be traced and were regarded as lost by HKPost.
The court heard that between August 2012 and April 2015, MTO received 1,531 reply slips, of which the maximum amount of compensation of $320 plus postage were claimed with the name of Cho or Ng to be the payee of the cheque.
On May 4, 2015, Chan, Cho and Ng met to discuss how to make documents, including invoices issued by a pen company and non-receipt declarations, to support their claims. Subsequently, Cho and Ng submitted those documents to MTO.
Believing that the information provided by the trio was true and accurate, HKPost eventually released a total sum of over $451,674 to Cho and Ng as compensation for 1,398 of the 1,531 registered mails. In fact, the items posted by Cho and Ng were not ball pens of that brand and the pen company did not exist.
Chan, Cho and Ng were arrested by ICAC officers on May 21, 2015. Among the items seized from Chan were three spreadsheets containing details about the 3,039 items posted by Cho and Ng, the court was told.
HKPost had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation.
The prosecution was today represented by Acting Senior Public Prosecutor
Kasmine Hui, assisted by ICAC officer Eric Chan.