Feng shui master Peter Chan dealt another legal setback on road to Hong Kong’s top court
Jailed for forging lover Nina Wang’s will in bid to claim her HK$83 billion estate, Chan fails to convince judges that his grounds to appeal to Court of Final Appeal are ‘points of law of great general importance’
Former feng shui master Peter Chan Chun-chuen has failed to gain the endorsement from the Court of Appeal that his grounds to appeal to the top court – including that his trial counsel was incompetent – involved important law points.
One of the grounds Chan advanced – revealed in court on Monday for the first time – was that he once asked his then trial counsel Andrew Kan SC to apply for the recusal of judge Mr Justice Andrew Macrae, who tried Chan in 2013. However, his request was not pursued.
Chan was applying for a certificate from the Court of Appeal on Monday to declare his grounds to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal were “points of law of great general importance”.
READ MORE: Failed appeal sees Hong Kong feng shui master Peter Chan sent back to jail for will forgery
Chan, who lied during his civil lawsuit to claim his late lover and tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum’s HK$83 billion estate, was previously convicted of one count of forgery and another of using a false document in 2013, and jailed for 12 years.
Outside court on Monday, senior public prosecutor Anna Lai said Chan put forward the incompetence ground since Macrae mitigated for him in another deception case in 1986, when the now High Court judge was still practising as a barrister.
No point of law of great general importance arises.
But his ground was turned down by Mr Justice Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor, Mr Justice Derek Pang Wai-cheong and Court of Appeal Vice-President Mr Justice Michael Lunn, who said Chan had not made the court aware of that previously.
“No point of law of great general importance arises,” Lunn said.
Chan also pleaded that the jury had not been given correct directions when handling the lies the prosecutors accused him of telling. He also asked the court to reconsider whether it was right for the court to use his self-serving statement in a civil proceeding in a criminal trial against him. Lunn rejected those grounds.
Chan further claimed a recent civil lawsuit filed by Chinachem Group subsidiary Right Margin against the group’s chairman Kung Yan-sum could shed light on what he suspected key witnesses in his trial had been paid to testify. Lunn said this was an alleged great matter of injustice, which stopped short of being a legal argument.
READ MORE: Feng shui master Peter Chan jailed for forging billionaire’s will to claim her fortune appeals saying his Hong Kong trial wasn’t fair
The feng shui master can still argue before judges at the Court of Final Appeal as to whether his bid to clear his name should be heard.
Chan represented himself in court on Monday, after a representative from his solicitor said no counsels were available, and that Chan had not yet made payment in full.
Chan’s younger brother Ricky Chan Chun-kwok said outside court that they were still raising money and would appeal to the Court of Final Appeal.
A representative from his solicitor said they intended to hire one Queen’s Counsel from the United Kingdom, one senior counsel and one junior counsel for last-ditch legal effort that could cost up to HK$8 million. But Chan has yet to manage to raise HK$1 million so far.
