ICAC charges 12 officers over 'staged' gambling raids
The ICAC yesterday charged two police sergeants and 10 constables for allegedly obstructing justice in the arrests of gamblers in Kwun Tong last year.
Six other people who allegedly acted as scapegoats for the actual gamblers were also charged. They were all arrested in a joint police and Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) operation in December last year.
The authorities had acted on complaints alleging that police officers were protecting a street gambling stall in a Kwun Tong public housing estate.
The ICAC said the charges were linked to two separate cases.
In the first case, the defendants are Sergeant Ng Kwok-man, 39; constables Lam Cho-fat, 32, Tam Tai-wai, 30, Lam Ka-cheung, 35, Chu Wing-wai, 30, and Chan Wai-kin, 34; Lam Kin-sik, 55, and Choi Ka-lun, 19, both unemployed; transportation worker Chung Wai-sing, 48; and driver Chan Wai-keung, 53.
They were charged with conspiring together and with Ah Sing, nicknamed Sau Nga Sing, to pervert the course of justice on October 9 last year by arranging for the four civilian suspects to be scapegoats in a gambling raid.
During the raid at the rear lane of the ground floor of Tsui Lau House at Tsui Ping Estate, the four were allegedly arrested instead of the actual gamblers.
In the other case, the defendants are Sergeant Leung Ka-kei, 36; constables Chan Chun-wa, 37, Chow Chu-kei, 28, Leung Lok-shing, 30, Lam Siu-keung, 37, and Chan Nga-ting, 23; Lam Kin-sik, Chung Wai-sing, warehouse assistant Ng Sing-wong, 26, and handyman Chong Hing-shing, 19.
They face one count of conspiring together and with Ah Sing to pervert the course of justice by arranging for the four civilians suspects to be scapegoats in a November 8 raid at the same place in Tsui Ping Estate.
All defendants, who are on ICAC bail, will appear in Kwun Tong Court this morning.
These cases are among the three that the police highlighted in a statement issued in May.
In that statement, the police complained that 15 officers who were arrested by the ICAC between June last year and February this year had not been charged.
The issue resulted in a public row between the ICAC and the police. The agencies have since agreed to strengthen lines of communication.
