Technicians guilty of faking test results for Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge costing taxpayer HK$58 million
- A dozen Jacobs China Limited employees among those charged in connection with faked strength tests on concrete blocks for world’s longest sea crossing
Wednesday’s ruling at the District Court meant all 19 prosecuted laboratory workers from Jacobs China Limited, which was responsible for testing the strength of concrete bricks used in the multi-billion dollar construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, had either pleaded guilty or been convicted in connection with the high-profile fraud case which cost taxpayers HK$58 million.
The defendants, who all pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud before District Judge Clement Lee Hing-nin, said they simply followed orders to “correct” test results by altering computer records, and replacing genuine specimen cubes with fakes, and did not believe it was malpractice.
But Lee said in his judgment the so-called “corrections” were merely an excuse to justify their criminal acts, as they must have known what they had done was unreasonable and unlawful.
“They must have been aware of the difference between ‘correcting mistakes’ and ‘covering up mistakes’, yet they knowingly executed a plan to cover up mistakes,” he said.