Three graft-busters convicted of coaching a key witness on how to testify in a HK$100 million fraud case have had their appeal dismissed.
The Court of Appeal rejected claims by Kevin Cho Wing-nin, 47, Ben Chan Kai-hung, 39, and John Au Kim-fung, 43, that the main witness in their 2012 District Court trial was unreliable.
Cho, a chief investigator at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and Chan, a senior investigator, are serving 30-month jail sentences for one count each of perverting the course of justice and one of misconduct in public office. Au, an assistant investigator, was jailed for 18 months for misconduct.
The three told the appeal court the main witness against them, Cheung Ching-ho, could not be trusted as he was a liar who had been convicted of fraud.
Cheung was a key prosecution witness in the 2009 fraud trial of "King of Warrants" Raymond Ng Chun-to. While preparing for the case, Cheung prompted the three to instruct him on how to testify, and secretly recorded the conversation.
In the judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Michael Lunn found that the judge in the original trial was right to accept Cheung's evidence, based on the recordings.