Kan, chairman of Sheung Shui Rural District Committee for 15 years, had been held in custody since November 18, when he was convicted of offering a HK$130,000 bribe to a village representative to vote for him.

But flamboyant Kan, who parked his three Rolls-Royce limousines outside his home, has shown through the years an amazing knack for overcoming the odds.

No wonder that during his 25-year career in a racing world once dominated by foreigners, he earned the nickname 'Strength Kan'.

Born to a farming family, he had little formal education - he dropped out of school after completing Form One. Kan took on a dozen jobs, including those of a salesman and an auxiliary policeman.

But it was while working as a dishwasher in Britain that he met an English jockey, an encounter that changed his life.

He went on to become one of the few people to receive life achievement awards from the Jockey Club.

They include one for winning a record 840 races before his retirement from racing in 2003.

But after 17 years in rural politics, solid evidence of attempted bribery emerged in July.

It was handed to the Independent Commission Against Corruption by his former friend and colleague, Bowie Hau Chi-keung, 55. Hau, who called Kan 'big brother' since they met in the late 1980s, said: 'He is too old to make a good judgment, so he trusted the wrong person and committed crime.'

Hau was also the candidate who defeated Kan in the Heung Yee Kuk elections in March that he had tried to influence.

'I'm surprised he offered money for votes, since men are born with flaws. But it was no use, as I am at the centre of [villagers'] support,' said Hau, who won the poll with 44 votes to Kan's 16.

Despite submitting evidence collected on four DVDs to the ICAC, Hau denied it was he who had brought down Kan.

Hau arranged for his secretary to record an incriminating video of a meeting between village representative Lee Shui-cheung and Hau Kam-lam, a North District councillor who acted on Kan's behalf.

But he said: '[Kan] was too stupid. There are surveillance cameras everywhere ... I warned him many times not to do something illegal.'

Hau said he was 'told by a source' that Kan had left HK$130,000 in banknotes in the shop of Sheung Shui village representative Liu Fu-sau on the day of the attempted bribe.

'On the same night I saw him in a banquet. I told him, 'I know everything you did today. You either quit the election or continue to challenge me if my words are wrong',' said Hau.

Hau claimed he had persuaded Kan to run for the seat on the kuk in 2007, but that Kan had refused because of his age. 'So I ran for the seat in 2007. But since then ... he started to have a grievance with me.

'I even wrote an anonymous letter to him, asking him to return to the right track,' said Hau, who likened Kan to the Empress Dowager Cixi, the powerful de facto ruler of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).

'Cixi turned dumb in her later years and misplaced her trust in the eunuch Li Lianying,' he explained.

Despite referring to Kan as his 'respected brother', he said: 'What I loathe most is when people say I am his protege. When do you call a man your master?

'Either because he has taught you valuable knowledge or has offered you money and help - Kan has done neither of these for me.'

The election bribery conviction is not Kan's first brush with the law. In 1989, he was convicted of sexually harassing his Filipino domestic worker.

He was fined only HK$25,000 after the court 'took his social status into consideration'.

In 1994 he was cleared of assaulting a social worker during a protest over a controversial land rights proposal. But despite Kan's conviction last month, some continue to believe in his innocence.

A former colleague at the Jockey Club, who first met Kan about 30 years ago, refused to believe Kan had offered a bribe and suspected he was set up by rivals.

'Kan believed his rivals had been too difficult for the villagers and that's why he wanted to do something.

'But in the New Territories, there is always no simple black and white, and there are lots of cultures people outside will never understand,' he said. The former colleague said Kan was a 'very generous and righteous' person.

'When the horse workers lost money on a race, Kan was so generous he gave them some money. But he would also remind them not to gamble again.'

He said that Kan was an 'iron man' who had to work hard for three decades to succeed in an exclusive club dominated by expatriates.

'There was no place for tong yan [Chinese] at that time and the club was a closed community. But Kan could still rise despite all these unfavourable circumstances.'

He said Kan, after having lived and worked in England, was able to prove his talents when Sha Tin racecourse opened in 1978 and Kan was recruited by one of the top English stables.

While he agreed that Kan was far from perfect and had personality flaws - such as being too arrogant - he retained respect for Kan's spirit.

'He never forgets people's favours as well as hatred. This is how he lived in the horse racing circle. When he lost one race, he was so determined to win in the next,' he said.

Another Kan loyalist is Leung Fuk-yuen, chairman of Shap Pat Heung rural committee, who said: 'I respect the law, but personally I do not believe he had bribed.'

Leung, who was also vice-chairman of the Association of New Territories Indigenous Residents once chaired by Kan, added: 'When it came to upholding villagers' traditional rights, he was never afraid of the authorities.'