Former officer says force did not fully investigate his case A former police officer fired for making fake 999 calls has asked the High Court to overturn the decision. In an application for a judicial review of his sacking, Lam Chi-pan, 31, says the force acted unfairly when it found him guilty last year of conduct calculated to bring the force into disrepute. Mr Lam was a constable with the Waterfront Police Station in Central when he was arrested in September 2003. Fellow officers said they saw him make a call from a public telephone near the Star Ferry at about the same time a false call was made to 999 that there was a fire at the Israeli consulate. At the time he denied the charge of wasteful employment of police, and in February last year was told he would not be charged. But in October, he learned there would be an investigation and that he would face six charges relating to his statements, the fire call and another fake 999 call made around the same time. He was found guilty of only the original charge at a hearing the following month, severely reprimanded and forced to retire with benefits. That was later changed to an order to resign without pay in lieu of notice. In his application to the court, Mr Lam claims the additional charges were not supported by investigation and that no evidence justified the charge his actions were calculated to bring the force into disrepute. 'It is procedurally unfair and improper of the [force] not to have carried out a separate disciplinary investigation,' the writ says. 'The force, by abdicating its duty to investigate this case fully, has treated [Mr Lam] unfairly.' Mr Lam also takes issue with - among other things - the prime witness at the proceedings, a fellow officer whom the adjudicating officer described as 'a witness determined to tell the truth while he is not very sure what the whole truth was'. The witness' evidence was confused and contradictory at times, the writ alleges, and did not deserve to be accepted at face value by the adjudicating officer.
