Integrity Focus

A former staff of a stationery company, charged by the ICAC earlier, was today (September 19) sentenced at the District Court to three years and eight months’ imprisonment for fraud by falsifying quotations, secretly purchasing plastic pellets at lower prices and reselling them to the stationery company at $7.2 million and pocketed inflated amounts totalling about $1.7 million. The offence was revealed in the course of a corruption investigation.

Au Yeung Yin-tung, 40, former shipping clerk of Creative Wealth International Limited (Creative Wealth), was earlier convicted with one count of fraud, contrary to section 16A(1) of the Theft Ordinance.

In sentencing, Deputy Judge Ms Veronica Heung Shuk-han reprimanded the defendant for breaching the trust her employer placed on her and showing no remorse. The judge added that the crime lasted about two and a half years, hence warranted a custodial sentence.

At the material time, the defendant was a shipping clerk of Creative Wealth, a stationery manufacturer and supplier. She was assigned to procure raw materials, including plastics pellets, for a factory of Creative Wealth. For each purchase, the defendant was required to obtain quotations from various suppliers and make recommendation on the supplier to be selected.

The court heard that on various occasions between December 2015 and May 2018, the defendant falsely represented to Creative Wealth that the prices of plastic pellets offered by Golden Dragon Consultants Limited (Golden Dragon) were the lowest amongst suppliers. During the period, upon her recommendation, Creative Wealth placed a total of 34 purchase orders with Golden Dragon for plastics pellets at over $7.2 million.

ICAC investigation revealed that some of the suppliers had never provided any quotation to the defendant. In fact, the defendant had purchased the plastic pellets concerned from other suppliers at lower prices, inflated the prices by about $1.7 million in total and sold them to Creative Wealth through Golden Dragon.

ICAC investigation revealed that Golden Dragon was in fact owned by the defendant’s husband. Some of the payments were eventually transferred from the bank account of Golden Dragon to the defendant’s bank accounts. However, the defendant had never declared to Creative Wealth her relationship with Golden Dragon.

Creative Wealth had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by Public Prosecutor Katie Fong, assisted by ICAC officer Ann Sin.