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SCMP Reporter

Former Narcotics Bureau chief begins trial over misconduct and corruption

A senior police officer went on trial yesterday  accused of accepting free sexual services from prostitutes.

Senior Superintendent Sin Kam-wah,  46, pleaded not guilty to three charges of misconduct in public office and one of being a government servant accepting an advantage.

Sin, a former head of the Narcotics Bureau, is one of the most senior officers to have been charged by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

He was cleared yesterday of two charges of possessing three fragments of Viagra tablets without a prescription after the prosecution offered no evidence against him.

His co-accused, businesswoman Lam Chuen-ip, 43, who operated  several entertainment venues in Tsim Sha Tsui, denied three charges of telling women under her control to engage in prostitution and three of offering a gift to a government servant, namely Sin.

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Kevin Zervos told the District Court that between March 2, 2001, and May 16 last year,  Sin accepted free sexual services from four prostitutes who worked at Lam's karaoke lounges.

Mr Zervos said Sin,  as a senior officer in the force, had 'willfully, intentionally, and culpably misconducted himself' by accepting the services from Lam who he knew was engaging in vice offences.

The prosecution claims that Lam instructed four nightclub hostesses to provide sexual services to Sin on three occasions at the Harbour Plaza Hotel in Hunghom and the Dadol Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Lam told the hostesses not to demand any payment from Sin after the services, and that she would settle the payment after they returned to the clubs.

One of the hostesses, whose identity was protected, testified that Lam approached her near Lunar New Year in 2001.

She told her to serve a  'a very important person' whose surname was Sin, and said that she had to dress decently.

On March 2, 2001, the hostess said, Lam told her to serve the customer in a hotel together with another hostess.

Lam instructed her not to charge the customer but to collect her share of $3,000 from the club later, the court heard.

'If the customer offered to pay, we have to say that we were friends and would not accept his money,' the witness said.

The prosecution said that on May 16 last year, Lam also offered Sin a box of cigars worth $3,000 at the Harbour Plaza Hotel, where Sin had sex with  another prostitute.

Sin was arrested by the ICAC after he checked out of the hotel and the box of cigars was found in his possession.

The trial continues today before Judge John Saunders.



Officer had prostitutes for free, court is told