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SCMP Reporter

TWO solicitor's clerks went on trial in the High Court yesterday accused of obtaining millions of dollars from banks by submitting forged applications for home loans in a two-month scam before absconding to Taiwan.

  Victoria Hartstein, prosecuting, said both Jack Chan Chi-keung, 38, and Yim Fat-hoi, 42, were working in the Mongkok office of Clifford Yeung and Co in July and August 1990, the time of the alleged offences.

  She said Mr Yeung worked mainly from the firm's Central office, briefly visiting the Mongkok office once a day. A solicitor, Ho Hung-chung, was based in Mongkok, but in the months in question he was on holiday and Chan was in charge of the office.

  In August the accounts clerk was also on holiday, leaving Chan and another clerk also named in some of the charges, Stuart Wong Ping-yau, in charge of signing vouchers and writing cheques.

  Chan was responsible for the conveyancing side of the firm's business and Yim was in charge of criminal cases; both supervised other clerks, the court heard.

  Chan faces 11 counts of obtaining property by deception and two counts of uttering forged documents and both defendants face four joint counts of obtaining property by deception.

 They have denied all charges.

 The case involves some $13 million borrowed from the Hongkong Bank, the International Bank of Asia, the Security Pacific Asian Bank and the Belgian Bank in respect of 13 properties.

  Ms Hartstein said shortly after genuine loans or repayment of loans had been granted by banks to bona fide purchasers who were clients of Clifford Yeung and Co, Chan submitted applications for loans, falsely stating either he, Wong or in four cases Yim, were genuine purchasers seeking to borrow on the same property, in one case from the same bank. In other cases he had applied to two banks to borrow money on the same property.

  In each case, the loan was approved; the money was paid into Clifford Yeung's client account and later the money was withdrawn and put into the defendants' accounts, it was alleged.

  At the end of August 1990, the two clerks absconded to Taiwan, the court heard.

  Ms Hartstein will continue her opening address before Mr Justice Patrick Chan and a jury today.



Law clerks accused in fraud case