Twelve people, including eight company directors, went on trial yesterday accused of deceiving the Housing Authority by providing counterfeit door locks worth $16.8 million.
The alleged scam involved 92,800 Bonco locks and 10,900 Alpha locks which were installed in eight Home Ownership Scheme projects and three public housing estates between July 7, 1997, and August 31 last year, prosecutor Paul Loughran told the District Court.
In court were Henry Tse Sun-fat, 45, Tony Tse Sun-po, 43, Almond Tse Sun-ming, 42, Rhodes Lee Chi-wah, 39, and Yick Kai-chung, 43 - all directors of E Bon Building Materials Company Ltd - former director Albert Tse Sun-wai, 51; Newise International Ltd directors Nobuyuki Nisugi, 53, and Tadahiro Okada, 40; Ka Wai-ming, 20, a shipping clerk of Newise; Cheng Sai-kun, 45, and Chan Mei-ho, 32, both officers in charge of E Bon's warehouse; and Wu Hok-sing, the supervisor of E Bon's customer services department. Each denied two joint charges of conspiracy to defraud.
Judge Fergal Sweeney ordered that a charge against Candy Lo Oi-kuen, 38, a secretary at Newise, be left on court files as Lo had agreed to appear as a witness in the case.
The court heard E Bon Building Materials Co Ltd supplied locks to contractors of the Housing Authority from about May 1998 to June last year and declared to the authority that the locks were manufactured by Showa Lock Co Ltd and Kokusan Kinzoku Company in Japan. But the locks were made in China or Hong Kong by manufacturers associated with E Bon, Mr Loughran said.
The prosecutor said E Bon set up a factory in 1997 in Dongguan, Guangdong province, to produce locks supplied to the authority's building projects. E Bon bought the locks through intermediary company Newise International.