Hong Kong court convicts ex-director of engineering firm for defrauding government over bogus test results for mega bridge
- Albert Leung becomes most senior figure held liable for fraudulent practices at laboratory monitoring quality of concrete used in Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge
- Judge acquits his Jacobs China Limited colleague, Leslie Harry Swann, after finding he had no knowledge of efforts to cover up bogus test results
Albert Leung Wing-keung, a former operations director of Jacobs China Limited (JCL), became the most senior figure to be held liable for the fraudulent practices at a testing laboratory set up to monitor the quality of concrete used in the multibillion-dollar construction of the 55km-long (34 mile) Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
District Judge Ada Yim Shun-yee on Saturday found Leung guilty of fraud, highlighting his deliberate omission made to authorities in 2016 and 2017 after the latter was made aware of the abnormal test results from the lab in Siu Ho Wan on Lantau Island.
The judge told West Kowloon Court that Leung must have had prior knowledge of the fact that lab workers had either substituted genuine concrete specimen cubes with iron piles or cubes of higher compressive strength, or changed computer dates when compiling reports.
She rejected Leung’s defence that he chose not to report the irregularities to the Civil Engineering and Development Department because he genuinely believed the case did not involve an element of dishonesty after he sought legal advice.
“I consider and find the only irresistible inference is that [Leung] knew any right-minded person would consider anyone under a duty to disclose the simulated tests irregularity to [the department] but did not, was dishonest,” Yim wrote in a 66-page judgment.
“[Leung] by deceit with intent to defraud [the department], deliberately concealed the simulated tests’ irregularity.”