HK Finest (at fraud)

Retired policeman jailed 4 years for fraud

Retired Detective Senior Police Constable Poon King-chuen has been jailed four years by the District Court for perversion, forgery, deception and making a false report to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

 

Poon, 49, was found guilty of eight charges - one of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, three of perversion, one of forgery, one of using a copy of a false instrument, one of obtaining property by deception, and one of making a false report to the ICAC.

 

Three of the offences, which took place May 2 and July 16, 2007, related to a theft case at a department store which was being investigated by Poon. He conspired with a suspect to pervert the course of justice by procuring witness statements to be given in the name of a store security guard which would result in the withdrawal of prosecution against the suspect.

 

Poon informed the suspect to collect from her mailbox copies of two forged witness statements purportedly made by the security guard. In one of the statements the guard purportedly requested to withdraw the complaint of theft against the suspect. The statements, which were not made by the guard, were found to be forged.

 

Poon then made a false report to the ICAC accusing the suspect of offering $4,000 to the guard in return for the latter's assistance in fixing up the theft case against the suspect.

 

Four other offences took place between January 3 and August 29, 2007, and were related to a deception case handled by Poon in 2006.

 

He forged witness statements of three people who had jointly lodged a complaint with the Police against a person accused of obtaining loans by deception. The statements were purportedly given by the complainants to withdraw their complaint.

 

He also made false representations to the complainants the police investigation was still on-going, and there was little prospect of prosecuting the offender. He also claimed another person could assist in collecting the debts and dishonestly obtained $6,000 from one of the complainants.

 

On two different occasions Poon incited, induced and instructed the complainants to make false statements to the Police and the ICAC.

 

On November 10, 2006, Poon also incited, induced and instructed a 14-year-old boy, who was suspected to have stolen a mobile phone, to make a false statement to Police.