Prelude and Chronicle

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In the early 1980s, the ICAC exposed a series of bus fare theft in which unscrupulous employees of a franchised bus company used corrupt means to cover up their crimes. The scam had cost the bus operator substantial losses in revenue, with fare-paying commuters being the final victims.

Prelude

On a sunny afternoon, a duty officer at the Report Centre of ICAC’s Operations Department caught sight of a middle-aged man standing at the door.

With a bruised face, the bloated man staggered towards the duty officer, leaning on an umbrella for support. Dressed in shirt and shorts, his bandage-covered thigh was visible, with layers of bandage seemingly bulging from underneath his shirt. In an emotional tone, he shouted: “I have to make a report, I have to.”

The duty officer intently heard him out: “What is becoming of this world? They wanted me to take the money, I refused and they beat me up. So what? I will never be a thief, nor will I keep my mouth shut on what is happening.”

The man making the report was a driver from China Motor Bus Company (CMB). He said that it was an open secret that many of his colleagues had been stealing coins from bus fare collection boxes. In order to silence him, they cajoled him into accepting bribes. After he declined to be bought, they beat him up and ultimately stuffed in his pockets several hundred dollars as the payment for “sealing his mouth”. The man showed the duty officer the “bribe money” as he spoke.

Working on the information provided, ICAC subsequently laid bare a number of cases in which CMB employees used corrupt means in an attempt to mask their bus fare theft.

Chronicle

1980
August
  • The ICAC started investigation upon receiving complaints that CMB duty allocation officers had taken bribes from drivers to put them on preferential routes.
1981
January
  • 12 people were arrested in connection with the duty allocation scam and charged with breaching the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
19 and 26 February
  • Ten accused pleaded guilty before the trial began, and were put on probation for 12 months.
21 and 25 June
  • ICAC investigators arrested 39 suspects from the CMB North Point depot and their homes, including 35 men and four women, of whom 23 were CMB staff. All were suspected of conspiring to steal CMB fares.
  • Cash of $690,000 was seized, mostly coins. Also uncovered was $70,000 worth of gold, believed to have been bought with the stolen money.
  • About 100 ICAC investigators were mobilised in the series of raids.
12 July
  • The ICAC arrested 10 more people suspected of illegally duplicating keys to the fare collection box with a view to stealing bus fares.
11 August
  • A family of six plotting to steal “bus coins” and their accomplices were arrested in North Point. Four were convicted, one given probation sentence, while three others were sentenced from six to nine months in jail.
29 October
  • Chief Duty Allocation Officer and his deputy were convicted and sentenced to four-and-half years and four years in jail respectively; their sentences were reduced to one-and-half years and one year respectively after appeal.
14 December
  • ICAC staff stopped a bus on its way back to the Chai Wan depot after the last scheduled journey, arresting the driver, a man holding a travelling bag and the driver of a taxi waiting to pick them up.
  • Found in the travelling bag were marked coins dropped in by ICAC officers disguised as passengers earlier in the day.
29 December
  • Three security guards stationed at the coin counting room of the North Point depot were arrested, suspected of having accepted bribes as reward for concealing the theft of coins in violation of Section 9 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
  • Two pleaded guilty and were sentenced to three months and seven months in jail respectively. The latter was given an 18-months suspended sentence. One was released.
1982
16 March
  • Five CMB drivers and three former CMB workers were accused of theft. All pleaded guilty and were sentenced to three to nine months in jail. Five were given suspected sentence, while other three were jailed immediately.
30 April
  • In relation to the bank deposit of an accused in the CMB bus fare theft case, two bank managers were suspected of providing false information to ICAC officers with the intention to mislead them. The two were later released due to insufficient evidence.
21 May
  • Fifteen more people were arrested and accused of stealing CMB properties. Twelve pleaded guilty and were given suspended sentences.
6 October
  • Eight people including CMB’s Chief Cashier, clerks, workers, former CMB staff and two bank employees were charged with conspiring to steal and handle stolen goods. All pleaded guilty and were sentenced to six to 14 months. Three were jailed immediately.
  • CMB management pledged to tighten its monitoring system to avoid recurrence of coin theft.
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