Top barrister accused of eviction … by his mum

The elderly mother of a top barrister yesterday accused her only son of locking her out of their home in Pok Fu Lam and refusing to take her phone calls for the past six months.

Linda Chuan Yun-chuu, 84, also claimed her son Alan Hoo had thrown her out of a home she owns in Shanghai and refused to return HK$11 million in cash.

Chuan said she believed Hoo was upset after she refused to attend his third wedding because his second divorce had cost her a lot of money.

Hoo, a senior counsel, chairman of the Basic Law Institute and a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference delegate, could not be reached by the South China Morning Post at his office yesterday.

But according to a statement he was reported to have sent to some of the city's media, he denied the accusations and stressed he loved his mother very much.

Chuan told a press conference how a lawyer had turned up at her Shanghai home in October claiming her son had sent him.

He told her that she had to move out by the end of November because the property was to be rented out.

"I was also told that my son had changed the lock of our home on Sassoon Road in Hong Kong and asked me not to return to Sassoon Road," Chuan said.

"I told the lawyer I would wait for my son in the doorway, but the lawyer said he would pay for a hotel for me to stay in for one week." Since then, she has been staying with a nephew and niece.

She said Hoo refused to take her calls or to see her. "As soon as he hears my voice, he hangs up the phone," she said. "When I call his office, his secretary simply asks me to leave a message."

Chuan, who was accompanied by district councillor and friend Pamela Peck Wan-kam and Peck's partner Paul Tse Wai-chun, a legislator, said she wanted her son to return all her assets.

Catering-sector lawmaker Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, a friend of Hoo's, said he got a phone call from Hoo a couple of hours before Chuan's press conference.

Cheung said Hoo wanted him to pass a message to his mother and the media that he was willing to discuss the matter with her face to face and would try to meet any requests. He said Hoo was handling a legal dispute and so was unable to attend the press conference.

One of Hoo's close friends told the Post that Hoo and Chuan had been due to meet on Tuesday but she cancelled the appointment because of stormy weather. The friend said the mother and son might meet as early as last night.

Hoo, whose first wife was socialite Flora Cheong-Leen, married his third wife, former actress Liz Kong, last year.