A judge has ordered the Department of Justice to reveal which prosecution documents relating to a fraud trial were deleted from its computers. The trial was adjourned last month because of the missing evidence.
District Court Judge Douglas Yau Tak-hong gave the order yesterday after a complaint from defence lawyers. They told him the department said some documents related to the case had 'gone missing', but would give no further explanation.
The fraud case involves allegations of misuse of letters of credit at Hong Kong-listed Yueshou Environmental Holdings.
The firm's former vice-chairwoman, Kelly Cheng Kit-yin, 57, her daughter Carmen Cheng Wei-ming, 37, and three company directors have been charged with 11 counts of conspiracy to defraud and two counts of dealing with the proceeds of an indictable offence.
The Department of Justice confirmed yesterday that it 'had recovered documents that appeared to have been removed from its computer system but is currently making a thorough check on this. The matter was referred by the department to police when this was discovered.'
The department also said its employees had assisted police in a probe on the missing documents on June 7.