By Vir B. Lumicao
A Filipina domestic helper was cleared of a charge of breaching
her condition of stay on Monday, Nov 13, by a Shatin magistrate who said
prosecutors failed to prove beyond doubt that she worked in her employer’s food
shop in Tsuen Wan.
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| Tsuen Wan court where the case was heard |
Corazon Quintos wept after Magistrate Lam Tsz-kan pronounced
his verdict, which climaxed a two-day trial in which the prosecution called two
male witnesses and the defendant herself took the witness stand.
According to the prosecution, Quintos was arrested on Aug. 4
during a joint operation by the Immigration and Labour Departments targeting illegal
work.
Labour inspectors Kwok and Fong testified that at two different
times of the day they each posed as customers at stall No 10 in Tai Wo Hau
market, and were served by the same defendant.
Kwok said he went to the market at about 11am and saw a
non-Chinese woman standing in food stall No 10 and extending her arm into shop
No 11. He identified the woman as Quintos, who he said was talking to two
Chinese women.
Fong, pretending to be a customer, asked the defendant for
the price of the fish ball and reportedly replied in Chinese: “$10 for a pound,
$20 for two pounds.”
He asked for two pounds of fish ball and the defendant
weighed and packed the food item in a plastic bag. Kwok then handed her a $100
bill, and Quintos allegedly put the money in a plastic box, took four $20 bills
and handed the change to the officer.
The officer said he was in the shop for 3-4 minutes of transaction,
then left and called his commanding officer to report.
Asked by the defense counsel why Kwok did not check the woman’s
identity and arrest her outright, he said he was only assigned to disguise as a
customer and report to his superior if he saw a suspected illegal worker.
At 2:11pm on the same day, Labor inspector Fong went to the
wet market to validate the report and observed the woman in stall No 10. He
said he noticed the woman talking to a Chinese woman in the adjoining stall No
11, who turned out to be her employer.
Posing as a customer, Fong went to the store and was also
allegedly served by Quintos, who spoke Chinese while attending to him.
The inspector said he bought five items including fish ball,
bean curd rolls and bean curd cakes. He said Quintos served him, took the
payment and put it in the plastic box.
Fong also said he did not arrest the Filipina outright and instead
contacted his superior, who was with his teammates in a vehicle parked outside
the market, to conduct the arrest.
At the witness stand, Quintos firmly denied she went to the
market in the morning. She also denied she spoke Chinese, saying she learned only
a few words while going to the market for her previous employer.
She said she was in shop No 10 that afternoon to pick up her
food that her employer prepared for her.
Lam said the two prosecution witnesses were credible and
reliable, but the defense had cast doubt on their case for not arresting Quintos
on the spot while she was serving them.
In acquitting Quintos, Lam said he found the prosecution did
not prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Quintos had been working in Hong Kong for 24 years.
