A company director put his life at risk just to avoid facing a judge whose order he had 'flagrantly' defied, a court was told yesterday.
Chi Shi-jer, a director of Datacom Wire & Cable Co Ltd, failed to appear at the Court of First Instance because he was in a Shanghai hospital.
The businessman faces being jailed for defying Mr Justice James Findlay's order banning the export of goods from his debt-ridden company.
But his absence was deliberate, claimed lawyer Anthony Watson-Brown, representing Sun Ming Wah Holdings Ltd which is seeking $1.4 million owed by Mr Chi's company.
'This is a man who has put his life at risk by not taking medicine in order not to be here,' Mr Watson-Brown said.
'There is a statement that indicates the failure to take medicine that he has taken for the past five or six years - and which he knows will give him palpitations if he does not take it - caused his sickness.' Mr Chi was subjected to the court order on August 6.