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SCMP Reporter

A lecturer and past street child who cheated City University out of HK$2.29 million in a tenancy fraud has been  given a suspended jail term.

The conviction yesterday in the District Court  ruined the career of Cheng Po-wah,  53, who has now lost the job she has held since 1996.

Pleading guilty to conspiracy, the business management lecturer admitted she had falsely declared she had no financial interest in a Sha Tin flat that she rented from a former colleague, Hung Hie-yiin,  between October 1996 and February 2005.

She misled the university into giving her more than HK$2.29 million under the Private Tenancy Allowance  scheme.

Judge Susana D'Almada Remedios  sentenced both women to nine months' imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Although Cheng  walked free from the courtroom,  her employment with the university ended upon her conviction.

The prosecution said Cheng conspired with Hung and Hung's husband, Sun Yu-wen, 48,  to rent a flat at City One, in Sha Tin,  bought in the names of Hung and Sun for HK$4.15 million in 1996. Cheng then applied for the allowance from her university.

But  Cheng had paid out a significant sum of money in relation to the purchase of the flat, including stamp duty and estate agency fees.

Defence Barrister  Giles Surman  said the conviction was devastating for Cheng because one of the terms of her contract was that  her employment would end with any criminal conviction.

Mr Surman described Cheng's career as 'the triumph of human spirit'.  She suffered polio as a child, was abandoned on the street at 18 months old and was brought up in orphanages.

Through hard work she qualified as a barrister and later became a senior lecturer.

'There was nothing privileged about Ms Cheng's background - far from it. She was hard-working, self-reliant and possessed the determination to overcome possible prejudices as a result of her disability,' Mr Surman said.

He told the court that Cheng and Hung came to know each other when Cheng worked for Hong Kong Polytechnic  while Hung was teaching accountancy there and they became good friends.

But  Mr Surman said the friendship was  under considerable strain as a result of the offence.

'My client is going to lose her good old friend.' Eric Kwok Tung-ming SC told the court that his client, Hung, who suffered from depression, blamed Cheng for the offence.

Hung had resigned from her teaching post in 1999.



Lecturer's career, a triumph over adversity, ends in  humiliation