Triad-raid officer gets job back
A police sergeant ordered to retire for associating with his dead wife's brothers won his job back yesterday.
Mr Justice Raymond Sears said there was no evidence to support a police disciplinary hearing conclusion that Station Sergeant Cheng Wai-kit, 42, was aware his brothers-in-law were 'known triad members'.
'They were unsavoury characters,' he said. 'But I don't know if I could say this turns them into triads.' Sergeant Cheng's wife had begged him to look after her siblings, Kwok Sai-kit and Kwok Sai-mo, as she lay dying of cancer in 1987.
But the Kwoks were being watched by the anti-triad bureau and in 1993 they were arrested in a raid that also netted Sergeant Cheng, his new wife and two other officers.
Last August, the sergeant was compulsorily retired after 23 years of service.
The judge reinstated him to the force after overturning his conviction for 'associating with known criminals and triads' while off duty. But the victory may be short-lived.
The judge upheld his conviction for 'making a false statement' to police investigators, and returned the case to the Police Commissioner's office.
That may still be considered serious enough to cost him his job.
