Policeman convicted of taking discounts and free whisky released early after his sentence is halved

A former Wan Chai divisional police commander had his one-year jail term reduced by half after a High Court judge overruled the trial magistrate and found his misconduct was not premeditated.

Titus Wong Koon-ho was immediately released by Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing as he had already served six months in jail.

But Woo rejected Wong's appeal against his conviction.

Woo said that former Eastern Court magistrate Adriana Tse was wrong to take hearsay evidence into consideration when she sentenced Wong in 2013 for one count of misconduct in public office after he was convicted of turning a blind eye to a Causeway Bay restaurant serving alcohol without a licence, in return for HK$5,500 of discounts and free whisky.

The judgment said Tse had concluded that the handwritten note reading "banquet as a token of thanks to superintendent Wong", scrawled on one of the restaurant bills, was evidence to prove the offence was planned.

"I accept one-year imprisonment would be suitable for a magistrate to pass [on the defendant] if the offence is premeditated. In the absence of such an aggravating factor as premeditation, the jail term in this case should be reduced by half," Woo said.