A 91-year-old man has been given a six-month jail term, suspended for two years, for cheating the government out of more than HK$340,000 in welfare allowances by falsely claiming he lived alone.
Chang Lun, who in fact had lived with his 63-year-old son for a decade, had pleaded guilty to fraud.
He spent three weeks on remand in custody before Principal Magistrate Ernest Lin Kam-hung handed down the suspended sentence yesterday. It means that if he does not break the law within the specified time the sentence will likely be cancelled.
Lin did not make any comments on the case when he passed sentence.
Earlier, Kwun Tong Court heard that Chang, a retired decorator, declared that he lived alone in a rented flat in Sham Shui Po when he started drawing Comprehensive Social Security Assistance in 1995.
He persisted in his claim that he was living alone even though he had lived with his son since 2002, despite being warned during a review that providing false information or omitting information to obtain the benefit was a criminal offence.