Councillor misused hk$14m of firm's cash
An 'overbearing' Sai Kung district councillor misappropriated funds from a minibus firm of which he used to be a director and was behind the forgery of documents, the high court held yesterday.
Long-serving councillor Hiew Moo-siew and others were also ordered to pay back more than HK$14 million to the minibus operator.
In a written decision, Justice Andrew Chung On-tak said Hiew, a member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, and others were involved in forging the minutes of meetings and drawing up fake receipts.
After considering testimony from a handwriting expert, Chung said: 'The defence suggests the false documents could have been authored by someone other than the defendants. The suggestion is unsupported by evidence. I find the only reasonable inference to be that the false documents were authored by the staff of the defendants, as directed by Hiew and Shing.' The judge was referring to Shing Kut-cheung, the second defendant, who is also a former director of the minibus company. Two other directors and two staff members from the company were also among the defendants.
Last night, Hiew denied any wrongdoing: 'I didn't forge anything. I'm now consulting my lawyer to see what to do next.'' Asked whether he thought the judgment was flawed, he replied: 'Yes, yes, yes.'
However, in the High Court judgment Hiew's defence was repeatedly criticised as unreliable, incredible and unbelievable.
'The general impression left by witnesses' testimony is that Hiew's character was overbearing and he was looked at with awe by the other members of the plaintiff,' the judgment says. 'No one dared to raise objections to, or even query, the plaintiff's accounts or business decisions.'
Forging documents could be a criminal offence, the plaintiff's solicitor said.
Hiew was also held to have breached his fiduciary duty as a director of the minibus firm - Sai Kung Public Light Bus (Maxicab) (No 1 & 2) - from 1999 to 2005. Hiew, along with two other defendants, was ordered to pay back as much as HK$14.3 million to the company.
This included Hiew spending company money in his own name to establish a school on the mainland, 100 kilometres from another school in Guangdong, donations to which were approved at a board meeting.
Company donations of HK$61,000 and HK$30,000 to the Hong Kong Red Cross and another district councillor, Hiew insisted, were known to the members, though available documents indicated the sums involved were HK$5,000 and HK$1,000 respectively.
The court also found that Hiew had skirted his company's policy of buying minibuses from member owners, and instead bought the vehicles on his own behalf.
By law, an elected councillor sentenced to three months' jail or longer will be disqualified immediately from office.
