The executive director of the Hong Kong Housing Society acted as a character witness yesterday for a corrupt manager who conspired to offer bribes to a senior health inspector. Victor So Hing-woh told the District Court that Chu Ip-pui, 47, who was jailed for a year, had been honest and hard-working. Mr So said he and Chu had been friends for 20 years and the crime was out of character. Chu was found guilty of conspiring with two other men to offer $200,000 to an Urban Services Department senior health inspector, Yu Ka-foo, in return for the issuing of restaurant licences at Kowloon City Plaza. Judge Wong Hing-chun accepted that Chu had been misguided by loyalty to his boss, and had not received any financial gain. Yu was earlier convicted of conspiring to accept advantages, and was jailed for two years and nine months.
