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Five women and a man were fined $8,000 to $10,000 at the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts today (July 2) for contravening the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance (the Ordinance).
The courts heard that officers of the Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA), Home Affairs Department, inspected five suspected unlicensed guesthouses on Nathan Road and To Kwa Wan Road in Kowloon, as well as Wharf Road on Hong Kong Island from December last year to January this year. OLA officers posed as lodgers and successfully rented rooms in these five guesthouses on a daily or hourly basis. OLA officers also conducted an investigation at a guesthouse in Tung Choi Street in Kowloon as referred by the Police in April last year.
According to the OLA's records, these guesthouses did not possess licences under the Ordinance on the days of inspection. Therefore, the women and the man responsible for operating or managing these premises respectively were charged with contravening section 5(1) of the Ordinance.
A department spokesman stressed that operating or managing an unlicensed guesthouse is a criminal offence and will lead to a criminal record. Upon conviction, the offender is liable to a maximum fine of $200,000 and two years' imprisonment.
He appealed to the public to report suspected illegal guesthouses to the OLA through the OLA hotline (2881 7498), by email (hadlaenq@had.gov.hk) or fax (fax number: 2504 5805) using the report form downloaded from the website (www.hadla.gov.hk).
Ends/Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:50
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