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Sum Lok-kei

A Hong Kong woman has been sentenced to 39 months in jail over the city’s first fake marriage scheme found to have involved domestic helpers.
Chan Oi-fan, 54, abused loopholes in the city’s immigration system to allow unqualified people to stay in Hong Kong, the judge said on Thursday while handing down the sentence.
“If this is tolerated, the current system will collapse, and it will be the Hong Kong people who pay,” Deputy District Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung said. “It would be like bugs eating into a tree.”
He said Chan and her co-conspirators had publicly insulted the city’s administrative structure.
Chan, a security guard and the scheme’s mastermind, was convicted of four counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of perverting the course of justice in the District Court early this month.

The Immigration Department suspected that the defendant, who was arrested in May 2017, was involved in around 20 sham marriages between local men and 13 domestic helpers, as well as mainland Chinese women.
Some of the women had paid up to HK$150,000 (US$19,230) for a fake marriage, which they believed would get them a dependent visa and eventually residency.
If this is tolerated, the current system will collapse, and it will be the Hong Kong people who pay
Ernest Lin, District Court judge
While there was no evidence Chan had benefited financially from the scheme, Lin noted she had offered to pay the men up to HK$70,000 for marrying the women.
Chan’s gains were unlikely to be smaller than the fees to her accomplices, Lin said.
The department earlier said Chan had made more than HK$2 million from the scheme, which was in place between 2015 and 2017.
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The judge also described Chan’s crimes as well thought out, as she had arranged for the couples to meet and have fake photos taken.
In a previous media briefing, the department showed photos taken in various settings, which it said had been used by the fake couples as evidence of their relationship.
Some photos showed couples locking arms, others celebrating with cakes and flowers.
Lin said Chan’s arrangements had made immigration officers believe the couples were in genuine relationships.
Chan had perverted the course of justice by asking a co-conspirator to destroy documents related to the scam.

The court also heard that Chan, a divorcee with a son, was jailed for six years in 2002 for drug trafficking.
Chan’s scheme came to light after the department investigated a case of suspected bigamy in 2017.
At the time, a photo of Chan in her security guard uniform was uncovered, leading to her arrest and the seizure of documents related to the fake marriages.
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The department has arrested 17 men and 20 women, aged 29 to 65, in connection with the scheme. Among the 37, eight were Indian nationals, five were from Nepal and two from the mainland. The rest were locals. The department pressed fraud charges against 15 suspects, with 11 sentenced to jail terms of 10 to 18 months.
Foreign citizens who obtained residency through fraudulent means would be deported and have their Hong Kong identity cards invalidated, the department warned.


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Hong Kong courts

Mastermind of sham marriage scheme that targeted foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong jailed for 39 months

The Immigration Department displays photos taken in various settings and which were used by the fake couples as evidence of their relationship. Photo: Felix Wong

Immigration Department briefing regarding an operation that smashed a bogus marriage syndicate. 08FEB19 SCMP / Felix Wong

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Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Chan Oi-fan, 54, abused loopholes in immigration system to allow unqualified people to stay in Hong Kong, the judge said
Chan and her co-conspirators publicly insulted the city’s administrative structure, he said


Chan Oi-fan, 54, abused loopholes in the city’s immigration system to allow unqualified people to stay in Hong Kong, the judge said.


Crime in Hong Kong