Cook’s jail term cut in fraud-linked account case
HK01 · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago4 MIN
Summary
A temporary judge on Wednesday reduced the prison term of a 32-year-old cook convicted of money laundering after his account was used to receive fraud proceeds linked to fake donation appeals following the Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po. The court dismissed his appeal against conviction-related sentencing arguments, but found the original 11-month term excessive and cut it to seven months.
Key Points
- Temporary Judge Cheung Kit-yi delivered her reasons for judgment on September 2, rejecting claims the magistrate had misunderstood the case or failed to consider an alleged surrender.
- The appellant, Sham Shu-sing (湛樹成), 32, a cook, faced one count of dealing with property known or reasonably believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence.
- The charge covered October 25 to November 30, 2025, involving HK$64,886.45 in an Alipay Financial Services (HK) Limited account linked to him.
- The judge said there was no evidence he knew the funds were connected to Wang Fuk Court, and the magistrate had not treated him as having received benefits.
- She ruled his act of going to a police station was not a true surrender, noting he had not candidly disclosed personally authenticating the Alipay account.
Why It Matters
The ruling clarifies that reporting to police will not automatically count as surrender for sentence reduction if the defendant is not fully forthcoming. It also shows the court will still revisit sentence length even when it rejects broader challenges to the trial court’s handling of the facts.