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A construction scandal in 2000 led to 12-year prison sentences for two Hong Kong company directors. Two out of five buildings in a development at Yuen Chau Kok, Sha Tin (above) had to be demolished because short piling made the foundations unsafe. Photo: Dickson Lee
Post MagazineShort Reads

When a construction scandal in Hong Kong put two company directors in prison for 12 years in 2000

  • Two 31-storey blocks of flats were found to have dangerous foundations, because of short pilings – steel posts driven deep into the ground to support them
  • The dangerous corner-cutting led to the blocks being demolished and two company directors and an engineer who was involved being sent to prison
From our archives
Dave Besseling
Why you can trust SCMP

“Construction work on two 31-storey blocks of flats has been suspended in what housing chiefs have described as the latest fraud and corruption racket involving faulty piling,” reported the South China Morning Post on January 9, 2000.

“Piling on the two Home Ownership Scheme blocks […] in Sha Tin was found to be 13 and 10 metres shorter than required. The discovery is the latest in a series of piling defects on sites across the SAR which has sparked a crisis of confidence in Hong Kong’s construction industry.”

“Housing Authority member Daniel Lam Chun said the authority was angry and shocked by the latest scandal […] ‘We will not tolerate any danger to public life because of graft,’ he said.”

On September 4, 2002, the Post reported that “two construction company directors have been jailed for 12 years for their role in a substandard-pilings scam that led to the demolition of two housing blocks in a Sha Tin housing development.

Consultant Wong Chi-ming at the Housing Authority talks about substandard piles discovered at two blocks out of five in Yuen Chau Kok, Sha Tin. Photo: Dickson Lee

“In the Court of First Instance, Deputy Judge Anthony To Kwai-fung told Chan Kwong-yee, 48, and Tom Yiu Yiu-man, 46, who [ …] were convicted of conspiracy to defraud, that they had put people’s lives at risk and their investment at peril.

“‘The damage they did is enormous and it is also absolutely unthinkable that anyone would commit such a crime, creating such a hazard to life and property, for a comparatively small gain,’ the judge said.

“[Li Wai-hang, 46, a site engineer who colluded with the directors,] pleaded guilty and testified against the other defendants. He was jailed for 42 months. The judge ordered 21 months to be served consecutively with 39 months he is serving for a separate piling scam […] in Central.”

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