Civil servant Chan Kau-tai was caught accepting $3 million in bribes
The father of Canto-pop star Eason Chan Yick-shun was jailed for seven years yesterday after a judge said he had no sympathy for the former Housing Department official who was caught accepting $3 million in bribes.
Chan Kau-tai, 58, showed no emotion as Mr Justice Pang Kin-kee described the evidence - which included surveillance footage of him counting banknotes in his office after accepting a bribe - as 'overwhelming'.
As he was taken from the dock, Chan managed a small wave to his famous son in the courtroom. Eason Chan, dressed in a white cap, sunglasses, jeans and jacket, then enlisted the help of five burly bodyguards to clear a path through a media scrum to leave the court.
Last month, a Court of First Instance jury found Chan Kau-tai, a chief government building services engineer, guilty of 10 charges of accepting an advantage as a civil servant between April 1, 1999, and August 2, 2001.
In sentencing, Mr Justice Pang blasted Chan for his explanations for the crimes saying they were 'unconvincing to the extreme'.
'I do not see an ounce of remorse in you. It appears that this is a classic case where status breeds decay and where familiarity with one's job breeds corruption,' he said.