Repairman fined HK$10,000 over To Kwa Wan building collapse
Repairman maintains he is just the scapegoat for the tragedy in which four died three years ago, but victims' relatives say he got off lightly
A repairman involved in a fatal building collapse in To Kwa Wan three years ago was fined HK$10,000 yesterday, a penalty found unacceptable by families of the deceased.
Chu Wai-wing, 77, the only person prosecuted over the 2010 collapse, which killed four people, maintained he was a "scapegoat" shouldering all the blame, which the Buildings Department should have shared.
Chu faced a summons under the Buildings Ordinance, accusing him of carrying out work likely to cause injury to people and damage to property. He was found guilty after a trial. The maximum penalty is three years in jail and a HK$1 million fine.
Announcing the sentence, Magistrate Abu Bakar bin Wahab said: "I must decide the penalty according to evidence.
"[The] prosecution's evidence was sufficient to show that Chu's two acts - chiselling a column and floor slabs in the tenement - were likely to cause injury and damage. But it does not suggest whether it was, or to what extent it was, serious [in triggering the immediate collapse]."
Considering Chu's age and that it was his first offence related to building rules, the magistrate decided a fine was appropriate.
District councillor Pius Yum Kwok-tung said the widow of optician Choy Tao-keung told him she was upset with the sentence. "Consider the HK$10,000 penalty for four deaths," Yum said. "Each lost life costs a little more than HK$2,000. Do you think this is reasonable?" No relatives of the deceased attended court.