THE Court of Appeal yesterday reserved judgment on solicitor Alick Au Shui-yuen's bid to overturn his conviction for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Au, 38, who is serving a four-year jail term for helping disgraced former government lawyer Warwick Reid flee from Hong Kong, has argued that inadmissible evidence was left before the jury.
His counsel, Gerard McCoy, submitted that Reid's evidence that a co-conspirator had told him Au was helping Reid to leave Hong Kong should not have been put before the jury.
Adrian Huggins QC, for the Crown, said in reply that the evidence was rightly admitted. Should he be wrong, he urged the court to apply the proviso, under which the court could dismiss the appeal even if they agreed with Mr McCoy's argument, because theyconsidered there to be no miscarriage of justice.
Au's appeal against sentence will be heard after judgment, if necessary.
Au was convicted last October on one count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by helping Reid leave Hong Kong, although he knew Reid was suspected of corruption.
