A SECOND lawyer has been charged in the UK in connection with an alleged multi-million pound plot to supply British passports to wealthy Hongkong people. Solicitor James Edward Walker, 46, from Reading in Berkshire, was questioned by London police who in November last year arrested barrister Paul Samrai as he arrived at Heathrow on a flight from Hongkong. Police investigations concerned the supply of UK passports to lawyers, doctors and businessmen in the territory. British-born Samrai, 35, had been living in Hongkong since 1990 and returned to Britain voluntarily to answer police questions. Yesterday, he was further remanded on GBP50,000 (HK$557,000) bail until April 26 at Horseferry Road Court, Westminster. Walker, of Coldharbour, Goring Heath, Reading, was remanded on unconditional bail to the same date. Both men are charged with conspiring with others between June 1, 1990, and September 2 last year to dishonestly obtaining Britain passports belonging to the Home Office. Samrai was ordered as a condition of bail to surrender his passport to police and not to leave the UK.
