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A woman was sentenced to four weeks' imprisonment at the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts today (December 1) for contravening the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance once again. The woman had been convicted of operating an unlicensed guesthouse early this year and was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, suspended for six months. Due to her violation of the term of suspension, the court activated the suspended sentence today and it will run consecutively. She was therefore sentenced to one month's and four weeks' imprisonment in total.
The courts heard that officers of the Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA) of the Home Affairs Department inspected a suspected unlicensed guesthouse on Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mong Kok, in April this year. OLA officers posed as lodgers and successfully rented a room in the guesthouse on a daily basis.
According to the OLA's records, the guesthouse did not possess a licence under the Ordinance on the day of inspection. The woman responsible for managing the guesthouse was 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 anyone with information about suspected unlicensed guesthouses to report it to the OLA through the hotline (Tel: 2881 7498), by email (hadlaenq@had.gov.hk), by fax (2504 5805) using the report form downloaded from the OLA website (www.hadla.gov.hk), or through the mobile application "Hong Kong Licensed Hotels and Guesthouses".
Ends/Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:23
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