Mainland visitor who worked as cabbie jailed for 3 months

A mainland traveller who triggered concerns about taxi licensing loopholes after being caught operating a cab was jailed yesterday for three months for breaching his conditions of stay.

Liu Guohua, 42, of Guangdong, who arrived on a two-way permit to fight for the right of abode in 1999, also had the taxi driving licence he obtained in the city confiscated.

Liu was arrested after an undercover operation by the Immigration Department discovered he rented a taxi to carry passengers and accepted fares for the service.

He was suspected of operating the taxi illegally after he was involved in an accident on Ngau Tau Kok Road, in which he was hit from behind by another taxi.

Handing down the verdict, Sha Tin magistrate Merinda Chow Yin-chu called Liu a liar after he claimed in his earlier statements that he meant to operate the taxi only to drive for his mainland friend - identified only as a Ms Wang - when she visited Hong Kong.

'The defendant holds a two-way permit, which means he can't take up any employment in Hong Kong,' she said. 'But he said he had been carrying Ms Wang and her friends for one and a half years, and even said he had extended his free service to all the citizens of Hong Kong to carry them to their destinations but accepted no fares.'

Liu earlier said the daily taxi rental of $340 per morning shift and $290 per night shift, plus the cost of petrol, were paid by Ms Wang.

But Ms Chow challenged Liu and said that if he had not meant to carry passengers, he should have covered the 'for hire' flag.

During the undercover operation, Liu was also discovered to have accepted a fare of $29 and had engaged the meter before he set off, she said.

Defence counsel Francis Cheng Ming-bun asked Ms Chow to be lenient because Liu had two children on the mainland and one in Hong Kong.

Mr Cheng said Liu thought he would obtain the right to stay in Hong Kong and thus applied for the taxi driver's licence.

Legislator Lau Kong-wah has recommended that the government move to plug a loophole allowing two-way permit-holders to apply for the taxi driving licences when they could not work in Hong Kong.

Under the law, visitors can apply for taxi licences if they are over 21 and have held a full Hong Kong driving licence for a private car for more than three years.

The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau admitted that four out of 225,812 holders of taxi licences had used mainland travel documents to get their licences.

The Transport Department has said the taxi licence issue is under review.