Three Hong Kong men and two mainlanders were jailed for up to three years yesterday over a passport scam tied to a suspected ring of people smugglers.
Chen Kaiyan, 16, and He Wenyou, 23, from Fujian province were jailed for two and 21/2 years respectively by Deputy Judge Douglas Yau Tak-hong at District Court after being convicted of making false representation to an immigration assistant.
A snakehead, Cheng Pak-cheong, 46, was sentenced to three years for aiding the mainlanders, while Chan Kwok-keung, 39, and Li Yat-chung, 29, were jailed for 16 months for selling their passports.
Immigration officers said the two mainlanders had lied at the airport last November, claiming they were taking a flight to Bangkok. In fact, they were going to Rome, where they were to be smuggled in without visas and using SAR passports bought through a middleman.
The two mainlanders, accompanied by a snakehead at the airport, checked in for the Bangkok-bound flight with their own Chinese passports and told officers about their destination at the immigration counters.
After they entered the boarding area, the snakehead gave them boarding passes for the flight to Rome. The passes were obtained by the snakehead's associates who checked in for the flight with the SAR passports.
When the duo headed to the boarding gate, they were stopped by airline ground crew who found the names on the boarding passes were different from those on their Chinese passports.
