Nine people were sentenced to community service yesterday for acting as middlemen in a syndicate dealing in forged bus passes.
Assistant managers Man Wai-chung, 30, and Wong Wai-man, 32, printers Chan Tai-wai, 32, Tweety Leong Chui-yee, 30, and Leung Hon-wing, 30, accounts clerk Kathy Lai Suk-fun, 24, furniture shop proprietor Chan Chi-wai, 32, beautician Helen Lau Wai-lung, 30, and casual worker Lau Yat-leung, 21, were each ordered to perform 180 hours' community service by District Court Judge Wesley Wong Wing-fai.
The nine had earlier pleaded guilty to 19 offences, including conspiracy to defraud and possessing forged bus passes.
The court heard the nine defendants, together with three masterminds, had conspired with others to defraud New World First Bus Services Limited by selling or distributing forged company bus passes to people not entitled to use them. The firm issues passes to its staff and their dependants.
The three syndicate heads - warehouse worker Lau Tat-fai, driver Wong Sum-chung and civil servant Lee Tin-yau - were jailed for 17 months on Christmas Eve.
The court heard Wong had bribed First Bus driver Wong Tak-ming $1,000 to give him a genuine pass. Lau, Wong's partner-in-crime, then took the pass to the mainland for mass production. Bus driver Wong was given a three-month suspended jail sentence and fined $2,000.