A disgraced former school supervisor was convicted yesterday of conning a parent into granting HK$200,000 to help fund a merger with an international school that never took place.
Carman Liang Shuk-ching, former supervisor of the Pegasus Philip Wong Kin Hang Christian School, was found guilty in the District Court of one count of fraud but cleared of a second fraud charge, which also related to a loan to the school.
The 47-year-old was remanded in custody, despite pleas from her lawyer to extend her bail.
'This is a serious offence and involves a large sum of money,' Deputy Judge Don So Man-lung said. She will be sentenced on June 14 after the completion of a background report and a medical report.
Liang was found to have induced parent Tam Chi-shuk to pay HK$200,000 to Pegasus Social Service Christian Organisation, the school's sponsoring body, to help fund a proposed merger of the Kwun Tong school with Sear Rogers International School.
So said he found Tam's evidence earlier in the trial to be truthful. She told the court that Liang had persuaded her to grant the loan in order to repay debentures to parents at Sear Rogers as a precondition for the merger. In fact, the school had never granted such debentures.
The judge said the defendant's behaviour during the trial had been 'weird' and inconsistent, and rebutted points put forward by the defence, including its questioning of the integrity of witnesses and its claim that Liang had no motive.