High court appeal for policeman jailed over Nicholas Tse car crash

The policeman who was convicted with Nicholas Tse Ting-fung for perverting the course of justice when the Canto-pop star crashed his Ferrari won permission yesterday to argue his case in Hong Kong's highest court.

The Court of Final Appeal, consisting of Mr Justice Kemal Bokhary, Mr Justice Patrick Chan Siu-oi and Mr Justice Robert Ribeiro, granted former traffic constable Lau Chi-wai leave to appeal.

Lau and Tse were found guilty in October 2002 of conspiring with Shing Kwok-ting, a former driver for Tse's record company, to pervert the course of public justice.

Tse, 23, was ordered to serve 240 hours of community service while Lau, 29, was jailed for six months.

Shing and Tse's assistant, Chow Chi-fai, falsely claimed Shing was behind the wheel of Tse's Ferrari when the car crashed in Cotton Tree Drive in March 2002.

Mr Justice Bokhary said the court was convinced the matter met the benchmark of 'substantial and grave injustice'. They heard Magistrate Allan Wyeth had failed to acknowledge that Shing had retracted some of his evidence relating to Lau's role.