Teacher jailed 28 days for hiding ICAC probe
Bastillepost · 3 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago5 MIN
Summary
A 32-year-old former Immigration Department officer, Yau Sing-ho (游昇浩), was sentenced at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on September 15 to 28 days in jail after being convicted of three counts of fraud over his employment at Lutheran School for the Deaf. He was found to have concealed from the school that he was under criminal investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption and later under prosecution, while serving first as a contract assistant teacher and then as a permanent assistant teacher. Magistrate Don So Cho-yiu said Yau had intended from the outset to deceive the school for salary, took the risk in hope of getting away with it, and had only himself to blame. Yau was granted bail pending appeal after sentencing.
Key Points
- The charges covered July 29, 2022 to December 3, 2023, alleging Yau failed to disclose an ongoing ICAC criminal investigation and later criminal prosecution to Lutheran School for the Deaf.
- The school is a government-subsidised special school, and the magistrate said public expectations of teachers’ integrity were higher because the school operates with public money.
- Agreed facts said Yau was arrested by the ICAC in September 2021, reported back on bail several times, and was told in March 2023 that the investigation was still continuing.
- Yau passed an interview in July 2022 and was hired as a contract teacher, then passed another interview in August 2023 and was appointed a permanent teacher about a year later.
- The magistrate said the school’s reputational damage outweighed the educational service Yau provided, even though the principal had testified that his work performance was satisfactory.
Why It Matters
The case underlines how disclosure duties for teachers are treated as part of student protection and professional ethics in Hong Kong schools, especially in publicly funded special education settings. It also shows that courts may view concealment itself as serious harm, even where an employee’s day-to-day work performance was not in dispute.