Senior Hong Kong police officer jailed for 6½ years over HK$26 million mortgage fraud
- Superintendent Harbour Chan jailed over two counts of fraud after using fake documents to apply for mortgages from bank and credit company in 2019
- Judge opts to reduce Chan’s starting sentence by six months to reflect his ‘contribution to society’
A senior Hong Kong police officer has been jailed for 6½ years for fraudulently obtaining mortgages in excess of HK$26 million (US$3.32 million) after claiming to be employed by an ex-colleague and concealing his affiliation with the force.
Deputy District Judge Edward Wong Ching-yu on Friday accepted the defence argument in mitigation that Superintendent Harbour Chan Hoi-kong, 53, had “made a contribution to society” over his nearly three decades of service, opting to reduce his sentence by six months.
Wong had initially set the starting point for each of the two counts of fraud at 3½ and six years given the large amount of money involved. Wong supplied false documents to the Bank of East Asia and OCBC Wing Hang Credit to secure two mortgages between May and December 2019.
Co-defendant Wong Ho-ngai, a 51-year-old former chief inspector who met Chan in police college in the 1990s, also received a five-year jail term over his involvement in transferring HK$245,000 in “salary” – which should have been labelled as dividends – into his colleague’s account for several months to assist with a mortgage application.
The court heard that Chan submitted the applications to the bank and credit firm to obtain mortgages for a luxury house at Seaview Villas in Tai Po and a flat at Coastal Skyline in Tung Chung, using salary receipts provided from Wong instead of those he received from the force.
Chan had claimed he worked in the private sector and made between HK$115,000 and HK$246,500 per month between July and December 2019. But Chan was earning about HK$150,000 a month from his role as a superintendent at the time.