Tung Chung rural leaders jailed for stealing river rocks
A rural leader was jailed for two years and fined $10,000 yesterday for stealing more than 800 tonnes of boulders from Tung Chung River for a park next to the Disney site at Penny's Bay two years ago.
A District Court judge warned his act of 'greed' struck at the heart of the rule of law.
Tung Chung Rural Committee chairman Law Kam-fai, 63, and his accomplice, Wong Yat-wah, 51, were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud, one of conspiracy to steal stones, one of removing stones from unleased land and one of unauthorised excavation in unleased land.
Wong was handed a prison term of 20 months and fined $10,000.
Law received 24 months, including a 12-month sentence for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, which the judge said was the most serious.
Li Kwai-mo, 61, vice-chairman of Tung Chung Rural Committee, and secretary of the committee Mok Kwong-ming, 65, were also found guilty of the same charge. They were both sentenced to 11 months.
Law and Wong decided to 'speak in one voice' and provided false oral and written evidence to the police and various government departments following media exposure of their excavation, Deputy Judge Andrew Chan Hing-wai said. With the help of Li and Mok, they convened a committee meeting to instruct some Tung Chung residents to follow their move.
Citing the damage Law and Wong had done to the environment, each was fined $10,000 for removing stones and conducting unauthorised excavation on unleased land.
Judge Chan said their act was carefully planned and had hindered the criminal investigation and prosecution. '[This act] has a tendency of preventing the court from reaching any fair and just judgment ... It strikes at the heart of the system of the rule of law in Hong Kong,' he said.
The judge said more than 800 tonnes of boulders, priced at $90 per tonne, had already been sent from Tung Chung River to the Disney project at Penny's Bay for the construction of an ornamental lake when the case was exposed.
'The stealing was driven by nothing other than greed,' he said.
Taking into account Law and Wong's financial help in restoring the river, the judge reduced the 12-month sentence for stealing to six months for each of them.
'Such acts should be encouraged. However, the public must not be given the wrong impression that money can substitute prison terms. After all, restoration was only done after government intervention,' the judge said.
The defendants' sentences were also reduced based on their past contributions to the community.
The courtroom was packed with more than 60 Tung Chung residents who came to support the rural heads. During mitigation, the defence counsels submitted to the judge support letters from community leaders.
