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Clerk argued with accused headmaster

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Cliff Buddle

A HEADMASTER accused of fabricating documents to obtain funds for his school was reported to authorities by two members of staff with possible ulterior motives, it was suggested at his trial yesterday.

Mary Chao, a school clerk, admitted she was unhappy because headmaster Fong Shun-yuen, 35, had sacked her friend, a Tuen Mun magistrate heard.

But she denied calling Fong 'a beast' to his face.

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Andrew Macrae, defending, said to her: 'The headmaster dismissed your friend. You thought that was unreasonable. It was over a sum of money that had been lost. You argued with him about it.' Ms Chao replied: 'Yes.' She denied telling other members of staff that she believed the headmaster was pocketing money received by the school.

But she agreed there was a possibility she had told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) that he might have been keeping the funds for himself.

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Fong, headmaster of Tam Lee Lai Fun Memorial Pre-vocational School in Tuen Mun, denies seven charges of false accounting between September 1990 and August 1992.

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