A former senior police inspector has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for misconduct in public office and accepting bribes of HK$1.4 million in exchange for revealing details of the case and dropping an investigation into a suspect.
During Tuesday’s sentencing, Deputy District Judge Terence Wai reprimanded former police chief inspector Ho Siu-tung, 40, “for undermining public trust in the police, eroding Hong Kong’s proud reputation for integrity and striking at the foundation of the city’s rule of law,” the city’s watchdog said in a counterclaim. STATEMENT issued the same day.
“The judge also ordered the defendant to repay over $1.14 million to the Government, equivalent to the total amount of bribes involved in the case, within 42 months of serving his prison sentence,” the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) added.
Last week, Ho he pleaded guilty of two counts of misconduct in public office and two counts of accepting an advantage as a public servant.
According to ICAC, the defendant, who was sent to Wan Chai District, was responsible for overseeing criminal investigations conducted by the District Anti-Triad Squad and the District Crime Squad.
In June 2021, he met a merchant who reported a case of fraud. The trader was also involved in an assault case, which was investigated by the Anti-Triad Squad under Ho’s supervision.
In August 2021, Ho recommended to his supervisor, a police superintendent, that the trader be exempted from prosecution in the assault case and attempted to complete the investigation. The defendant also ignored two questions from his superior about whether further investigation was needed.
Instead, Ho ordered his subordinate to release the trader, despite him being identified as the assailant by the victim in the assault case.
‘favorable acceptance’
ICAC’s investigation found that over a year and a half, Ho accepted two cash payments of HK$500,000 from the trader, as well as gifts worth over HK$140,000, such as Burberry and Ralph Lauren children’s clothing, a Chanel bag, a red packet to pay his son and wife’s medical bill.
Between September 2021 and October 2022, Ho told the trader information from the police investigation, including personal details of suspects and individuals involved in two cases, summaries of police interviews and bail statuses.
The two cases were a fraud case reported by the dealer and a fake instrument case involving a friend of the dealer.
Ho was “favorably disposed towards the trader and his friend” during the relevant investigations, “including abusing his authority to extend the suspect’s police bail in the fraud case, and abusing his authority at the trader’s request to extend or limit the relevant investigative work in the case of the use of false instruments without reason”, ICAC said in the statement.
In mitigation, the defense said Ho faced mental and financial pressure from family matters and “fell into the abyss of selling his soul”. Taking into account Ho’s guilty plea and mitigation, Judge Wai handed down a 30-month prison sentence, up from an initial four-year sentence.
