Integrity Focus
Recent ICAC Cases
May 2024Woman gets two months’ jail for bribing TD examiner with mooncake voucher for getting a pass in driving test
A woman, charged by the ICAC, was today (May 16) sentenced to two months’ imprisonment at the Shatin Magistrates’ Courts for offering a bribe, a mooncake voucher worth over $400, to a driving examiner of the Transport Department (TD) in a bid to get a pass after making a mistake during the parking test of private car driving test.
Li Zhengchun, 54, earlier pleaded guilty to one count of offering an advantage to a public servant, contrary to section 4(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
In sentencing, Acting Principal Magistrate Ms Amy Chan Wai-mun reprimanded the defendant for bribing the driving examiner, which affected the fairness of the driving test system and undermined the public interest, adding that the court had to mete out an exemplary deterrent sentence to serve as a warning to the general public. The acting principal magistrate took a starting point of three months’ imprisonment, and reduced the jail term by one-third, having considered the defendant’s guilty plea.
The court heard that the defendant took a private car driving test at TD’s Driving Test Centre in Hong Kong School of Motoring (Sha Tin) on September 14, 2023 when Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching. A Driving Examiner II of the TD was randomly assigned to be her examiner.
In the parking test, the defendant made a serious mistake by parking half of the vehicle outside the boundary of the designated parking space. Afterwards the defendant offered a mooncake voucher worth over $400 to the examiner twice in a bid to get a pass in the driving test.
The examiner failed the defendant in the test for her serious mistake and made a corruption remark on the test records and reported the incident to the TD. Upon receipt of a corruption complaint referred by the TD on the same day, ICAC officers arrested the defendant on the spot at the Driving Test Centre. The TD had also rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.
The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Joanne Wong.
The ICAC works closely with government departments, through education and publicity, to ensure that civil servants uphold probity and say no to corruption. Bribery is a serious offence. Members of the public are reminded not to offer bribes to civil servants in exchange for assistance or favour.