Barrister convicted of using fake will and forging dead man's signature
A barrister has been convicted of using a bogus will drawn up in the name of a late calligraphy master that purportedly left a Western District flat to his sister, who was one of the master's apprentices.
A barrister has been convicted of using a bogus will drawn up in the name of a late calligraphy master that purportedly left a Western District flat to his sister, who was one of the master's apprentices.
It was impossible for the will to be real as three signatures on the document were found to be fake, a judge said yesterday.
Wong Kwai-sang, 50, also forged the signature of Au Shu-cham on bank slips to withdraw a total of HK$15,400 from Au's bank account after he died in 2009 aged 75.
Wong was found guilty of nine charges - three of using a forged will, one of making a false statement on oath, and six counts of theft for taking the money.
"The will was certainly not made by Au," Judge Pang Chung-ping said in the District Court. "It is definitely a false document."
The court heard earlier that Au sold the flat on Sai Yuen Lane to his godson for HK$1 million in 1997 and continued to live in it.
In October 2009, Wong submitted a will to the High Court claiming Au had appointed him as executor and made his elder sister, who lived at the flat with Au and a few other pupils for more than 20 years, as a beneficiary.
In yesterday's ruling, the judge said that if Au had wanted to draw up a will when he became very ill in June 2009, he would have told at least one or two people who were really close to him.
However, no one saw Au sign the will. Two witnesses who purportedly signed it did not exist, and an expert found Au's signature was fake. Au's other pupils also said he had never mentioned leaving his estate to Wong's sister, Pang noted.
He adjourned sentencing to December 12 pending a psychiatric report, after Wong claimed he suffered from insomnia and mental illness.
