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The director of Harmony Property Management Limited (Harmony) was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment by the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts today (July 16) for theft following the detection of abuse of the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund (PWIF).
In addition, the court also granted a disqualification order against the defendant for five years which prohibits the defendant from acting as a company director or to be concerned or take part in the promotion, formation or management of a company, in accordance with the Companies Ordinance.
Harmony had been providing management services to around 60 privately owned buildings in Hong Kong. In late 2006, Harmony ceased operation, leaving wages and other termination payments of nearly 200 employees unpaid. The total outstanding sum was over $5 million.
Subsequently, the affected employees applied for ex gratia payments from the PWIF. While investigating the wage offences and verifying the PWIF applications, the Labour Department (LD) detected that the director might be involved in embezzling the management fees that the incorporated owners had entrusted Harmony to collect from the residents, including the funds that were supposed to be used to pay wages for the building attendants employed by Harmony.
The Labour Department then referred the case to the Police for investigation. Subsequently, the Police charged the director for committing theft of property of the incorporated owners of buildings pursuant to the Theft Ordinance. The director pleaded guilty on July 2 and was sentenced today.
The spokesman for the LD, welcoming the court judgment, said, "The Labour Department, apart from combating wage offences and abuses of the PWIF, will also refer any other suspected crimes or offences detected during our investigation to the Police or other law enforcement departments for action."
According to the Theft Ordinance, the maximum penalty for committing theft is imprisonment for 10 years.
Ends/Friday, July 16, 2010
Issued at HKT 19:30
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