Integrity Focus

A former manager of a cleaning service contractor of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), charged by the ICAC, today (September 9) admitted at the Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts that he had deceived three subordinate cleaning workers into returning a wage difference totalling over $38,000 in a span of nearly two years, by falsely representing to them that the employer had miscalculated their wages.

Choy Wai-hong, 50, former contract manager of Sparkle Environmental Services Limited (Sparkle), pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud, contrary to section 16A of the Theft Ordinance.

Magistrate Miss Lau Suk-han ordered the defendant to make a compensation of over $38,000, equivalent to the total amount of which the defendant had defrauded in this case, to the three cleaning workers concerned. The case was adjourned to September 20 for sentence, pending the defendant’s background and community service order reports. The defendant was remanded in the custody of the Correctional Services Department.

The court heard that at the material time, the defendant was a contract manager of Sparkle, a cleaning service contractor of the FEHD. He was responsible for supervising the company’s foremen and cleaning workers posted to Sai Kung District, and handling relevant matters of recruitment and employment contracts.

The offences took place between August 2020 and July 2022. The defendant, without Sparkle’s authorisation, made false representations to three cleaning workers concerned that they were employed and paid as casual workers. Subsequently, the defendant falsely represented to the three workers that Sparkle had miscalculated their wages, and deceived the trio into returning part of their wages, totalling over $38,000, to him.

The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint in relation to workers’ wages. Enquiries revealed that the trio were in fact Sparkle’s full-time employees who were entitled to higher pay rates, but the defendant made false representations to them that they were employed as casual cleaning workers at a daily wage of either $420 or $450 only. Meanwhile, the defendant had never returned to Sparkle the wages which he defrauded out of the trio.

The FEHD and Sparkle rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Chin Sing-yue.