A former taxman was finally sentenced on a charge of misconduct in public office, after the difference between a judge's written judgment and the verbal version delivered in court caused a delay.
Sentencing of Chu Ching-kwok had been delayed after his lawyer, Kevin Egan, argued that Madam Justice Clare-Marie Beeson, in allowing the Department of Justice's appeal against Chu's earlier acquittal, had not explicitly convicted him.
But yesterday, Egan told Eastern Court the judge had since produced a transcript showing she had convicted Chu when delivering the verdict in the Court of First Instance.
'[But] she didn't include in her [written] judgment that which she said in open court,' said Egan, who was not at that hearing because counsel were not required to attend.
Magistrate Bina Chainrai, who had been about to pass sentence on April 29 when Egan put forward his argument, fined Chu HK$3,000 yesterday for copying the personal data of 18,300 taxpayers.
Chainrai acquitted Chu in 2008 on the basis that he had not decided what he would do with the data, but the case was returned to her after the prosecution's successful appeal. As part of Chu's defence, a psychiatrist previously gave evidence that he was a compulsive hoarder and exhibited a form of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. A psychiatrist called by the prosecution agreed Chu had the disorder but said his copying of data did not fit the definition of compulsion.
