A judge ruled yesterday that the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department had no grounds to prosecute a food hawker operating inside a building he said was a 'malignant tumour'.
Magistrate Siu Lai-chow's comment in Eastern Court was later criticised by residents of the Tai On Building in Shau Kei Wan, who said it would encourage more hawkers to set up in the building.
Lau Ying-han, chairwoman of the building's incorporated owners, said they had never permitted anyone to sell food in the passageway. Although complaints had been made over 10 years, more than 20 hawkers were now occupying the corridor.
Mr Siu ruled that the building's passage was privately owned, although the public had free access to it. He said it was not a public place under the jurisdiction of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and should be managed by the owners themselves.
Mr Siu said the building was 'a malignant tumour . . . out of control and not bound by law, the Government or the incorporated owners . . . I have heard suggestions of bombing it'.
He ruled that Choi Chau-cheong, 43, had no case to answer on one count of obstructing a public place.