Councillors deny fraud over allowance for rent

Two members and a former member of Kowloon City District Council yesterday denied fraudulently obtaining rental allowances from the government in a case involving HK$250,000.

Virginia Fung King-man and Lau Ting-pong, both Democratic Party members, and former councillor Luk Wai-kong pleaded not guilty in the District Court to a charge of conspiracy to defraud.

Fung separately denied four charges of providing false information about renting a Hung Hom office between September 1998 and September 2004.

Lau pleaded not guilty to two other charges of providing false information about renting the office.

The three are alleged to have deceived the government into paying monthly allowances of HK$20,320 in June and July 1998 for the Hung Hom flat they used as a joint office when the rent was only HK$14,800.

Prosecutor Wong Po-wing told Deputy Judge Douglas Yau Tak-hong that Fung allegedly submitted 73 inflated rental receipts to claim the allowance.