Advertisement
Advertisement

Warder gets 30 months' jail for smuggling

A prison warder who smuggled nude pictures of a woman to her jailed boyfriend was sentenced yesterday to 30 months' jail.

So Lap-chung, 31, also smuggled other unauthorised items, including a pager and a number of pairs of glasses, to the Stanley Prison inmate.

In return for his services, the woman gave So, an assistant officer with the Correctional Services Department, loans, $10,000 cash and a model boat.

The District Court handed down the jail sentence yesterday after the officer was found guilty of eight offences, including accepting advantages and taking unauthorised items in and out of the high-security prison.

So was also fined $1,300 and was ordered to pay restitution of $10,000 to the government.

The court heard that So had agreed to take in the items to inmate Choi Wai-kwong partly because of his affection for the woman, Cheung Lai-shan, who had been called as a witness in previous court hearings.

In sentencing, Judge To Kwai-fung said it was a very serious offence for a Correctional Services Department officer to introduce unauthorised articles into prison for bribes.

Such actions might adversely affect order in the prison and endanger its effective management, the judge said.

The court heard yesterday that the jailed officer had accepted the model boat, loans and bribes between April and November last year.

And in August last year, the officer took $10,000 in cash from the woman as a reward for taking in the pager, which could be used for gambling.

The court also heard that the 20 photographs involved in the case were smuggled into the prison by So on two separate occasions in July and August last year, and smuggled back out in November at the inmate's request.

Post