Councillor convicted in bribery case
But Sha Tin man and his wife are cleared on 12 counts of conspiracy to falsely claim allowances
A Sha Tin district councillor was convicted on two bribery charges yesterday after asking a bus company director for $100,000 in return for helping to renew a coach service licence.
Wong Kwok-hung, 45, chairman of the Incorporated Owners of Kam Ying Court in Ma On Shan, was prosecuted by the ICAC for soliciting the cash from Wong Chi-man in February last year after helping Nam Hoi Bus Services Company renew its licence to run a residents' coach route.
The bus company director, who worked as an undercover agent during the Independent Commission Against Corruption probe in exchange for immunity from prosecution, paid a $30,000 bribe to the defendant on September 23 last year at the defendant's Fo Tan office.
The defendant denied he had accepted the money - which was recovered on a canopy underneath the office block - saying it was sponsorship for the residents' association. He said the sponsorship had been suggested by the bus company director but he refused the offer.
The prosecution told the District Court that recorded conversations showed the defendant had initiated and hurried the director to 'sponsor' his activities.
District Court judge Andrew Ma Hon-cheung said that the payment was not intended to be sponsorship but for the defendant's personal use.
'It was not an unconditional sponsorship to the incorporated owners' association ... it was a payment made directly to him,' the judge said.
However, the defendant and his wife, Liu Suet-mui, 45, were yesterday acquitted on 12 charges of conspiracy to falsely claim allowances from the Sha Tin district council.
The allowances covered eight local one-day tours for Kim Ying Court residents between February 2003 and June last year.
The couple allegedly used blank and overstated coach-service receipts but the travel agency operator, who was serving as a witness, could not remember the price discrepancies.
Ms Liu was released yesterday while Wong was remanded in custody, pending a background report, until January 17 for sentencing.
A government spokesman said Wong had been an elected district council member since 1994.
The government had a case pending on whether to disqualify him.
'According to the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, Mr Wong would be disqualified as a district councillor if he was found guilty for taking bribes. Yet we have to see if he will appeal and wait for the final judgment of the case,' the spokesman said.
The court earlier refused a defence application by Peter Duncan SC to dismiss the charges relating to the $30,000 bribe on the grounds that the ICAC investigation - with the help of Wong Chi-man as an undercover agent - amounted to 'entrapment'.
Mr Duncan said Wong Chi-man was 'forceful' and 'persistent' in eliciting incriminating statements during the investigation.
