Agent faces court over $14m deal

A property repossession negotiator allegedly conspired with a rooftop occupant to launch a claim against the building's owner to postpone the completion of a $14 million deal, a court heard yesterday.

Philip Chan Man-kwong, 44, pleaded not guilty in the District Court to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, forgery and aiding and abetting a person to commit perjury.

Prosecutor Petrus Chan alleged Chan conspired with Sin Yin-yat, the rooftop occupant of 44 Kowloon City Road, between August 1998 and September 2004 to falsely claim in a High Court writ that Sin owned his premises.

Chan was also accused of forging a memorandum to state that Sin had bought the rooftop hut for $3,000 in September 1980. Sin last month pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury and one of forgery.

He is expected to give evidence for the prosecution against Chan.

The prosecution said Charmfar Ltd approached the landlord in 1998 and agreed to pay $14 million for the building.

The prosecutor said the owner had rejected a request from Charmfar to postpone the deal because of a downturn in the market.

On September 3, 1998, Sin had filed an adverse possession claim against the owner in the High Court, concealing the fact that he had accepted compensation from Charmfar and had moved out of his wooden hut.

The prosecutor alleged Chan had asked Sin to file the claim in order to delay the completion of the transaction. Sin dropped the claim in August 2004 when the vendor agreed to sell the property for just $8.3 million, far less than the original $14 million.

The case continues today before Deputy Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung.