Renovator guilty of defrauding Cecil Chao

A renovator was convicted yesterday of defrauding the firm of flamboyant property tycoon Cecil Chao Sze-tsung of nearly HK$100,000.

Or King-lui, 47, was found guilty of nine counts of fraud carried out while he worked on Villa Cecil, where Chao lives, and Cheuk Nang Lookout.

Both residential projects are owned by Cheuk Nang (Holdings), of which Chao is the executive director.

As the site foreman, Or was found to have inflated the sum he would pay to his six workers between May 2010 and September 2011. He told Cheuk Nang one amount, and paid the workers less, pocketing the difference.

Magistrate Ho Wai-yang acquitted Or of one count of fraud because of unreliable witness testimony.

But Ho said all but one of the prosecution witnesses, including Chao, were honest and reliable.