TWO solicitor's clerks who obtained more than $11 million in a mortgage scam had brought the legal profession into disrepute, a High Court judge, sending the pair to jail, said yesterday.
Mr Justice Patrick Chan said Jack Chan Chi-keung, 31, and Yim Fat-hoi, 42, had taken advantage of the lax control of solicitor Clifford Yeung and the system.
Chan and Yim's actions led to the collapse of the law firm of Clifford Yeung and Co, in whose Mongkok office they worked.
Both had denied submitting forged applications for home loans to banks in July and August of 1990 before absconding to Taiwan, but were convicted yesterday after a five-week trial.
The court heard the solicitor in charge of the Mongkok office was away in July and August and Chan, who had only three years' experience, was left in charge.
Mr Yeung worked mainly from the firm's Central office.
It heard evidence that shortly after genuine loans were granted by banks to clients of Clifford Yeung, Chan submitted loan applications falsely stating he, or Yim, in four cases, and others, were purchasers seeking to borrow on the same property.
