A spokesman for the Housing Department (HD) today (November 21) said that the HD always spares no effort in combating false declaration made during application for public housing. A public rental housing (PRH) applicant, who concealed the ownership of bank savings of over $2 million, was convicted by the Court yesterday (November 20) for the offence of making a false statement knowingly.

     In this case, the applicant submitted a PRH application form to the HD in July 2016 on which the bank savings were declared to be approximately $27,000. In the subsequent investigation around September 2016, the HD found that this applicant only declared the bank accounts in one bank but intentionally concealed a composite account in another bank, which included three savings accounts in Hong Kong currency and one savings account in Renminbi. The total balance of the composite account was around $2,480,000. Eventually, the applicant was prosecuted for making a false statement knowingly, contrary to Section 26(1)(c) of the Housing Ordinance. The case was heard in Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts yesterday. Having considered gravity of the offence, the presiding magistrate ordered the defendant to pay a fine of $13,000 and sentenced the defendant to 14 days' imprisonment, suspended for 24 months.
    
     The spokesman reminded all PRH applicants that making a false statement to the Hong Kong Housing Authority during PRH application is an offence under Section 26(1)(c) of the Housing Ordinance. The maximum penalty is a $50,000 fine and imprisonment for six months while the PRH application will be cancelled.
 

Ends/Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Issued at HKT 12:40

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