Two subcontractor workers of North District Community Health Centre sentenced for conspiring with team leader to accept $300,000 bribes

Two air-conditioning subcontractor workers, charged by the ICAC, today (September 4) respectively received a jail sentence and a suspended sentence after admitting at the Fanling Magistrates’ Courts that they had conspired with a team leader to accept bribes totalling over $300,000 from workers of a government development project for the North District Community Health Centre.

Tse Shu-hong, 65; and Ho Hon-kei, 54, both former workers of Datatech Enterprises Limited (Datatech), today pleaded guilty to a total of three counts of conspiracy for an agent to accept an advantage, contrary to section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.

Tse was jailed for seven weeks and ordered to pay Datatech a restitution of $13,500, equivalent to the bribes he received in the present case. In sentencing, Magistrate Miss Frances Leung Nga-yan remarked the court had already taken into account various factors, including Tse’s guilty plea and the fact that he had only accepted bribes from one worker.

The magistrate added that Ho was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined $30,000, having considered that he had followed the instructions of his team leader to commit offences out of blind loyalty and had no personal gain in the present case.

At the material time, i.e. between December 2022 and February 2024, Datatech was a subcontractor responsible for air-conditioning and refrigeration system installation of the development project of North District Community Health Centre cum Social Welfare Facilities of the Hospital Authority (HA). As stipulated in the employment contract, the daily wage of a worker was $2,000.

The court heard that Ho and four other workers were referred by a team leader of Datatech or Tse to work at the site. Datatech prohibited its staff to solicit or accept advantages from others in relation to its business.

Tse and Ho admitted to the court that they had separately conspired with the team leader to accept bribes ranging from $600 to $1,000 per working day, totalling over $300,000, from the workers referred by them to work for Datatech.

The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. Enquiries revealed that the workers paid bribes for fear of losing their jobs, and Ho himself had paid bribes of about $120,000 to the team leader.

Co-defendant Yung Sung-kwan, 62, former team leader of Datatech, charged by the ICAC a total of five charges, namely three counts of conspiracy for an agent to accept an advantage and two counts of agent accepting an advantage. The case was adjourned to November 27 for mention and Yung’s bail was extended.

The HA and Datatech rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Keith Yan.