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| Case was heard at Shatin court |
A 71-year-old Filipina domestic worker avoided jail today, Monday, after being convicted in Shatin Court of conspiracy to defraud the Immigration Director for entering into two fake employment contracts that enabled her to get an employment visa.
Acting Principal Magistrate Amy Chan acknowledged the appeal
of Virginia Jovilla’s lawyer for a lenient sentence in recognition of a clean
record in her 40 years’ service to a number of families and her contributions
to Hong Kong society.
Magistrate Chan, after consulting the prosecution about
the punishment in a similar case in the past, chose a starting point of six
months in prison for each of the two charges, which became four months after deducting the one-third discount because of her guilty plea.
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| TAWAG NA! |
Not only did Chan make the two jail terms run at the same time, she also suspended them for three years.
“You will not go to jail
today,” she told Jovilla, “but if you reoffend during the next three years, you
will have to serve the three months.”
Earlier, Magistrate Chan was also assured by the prosecutor that Jovilla will be deported upon conviction.
The case arose after Jovilla presented to the
Immigration Department two fake employment contracts during the two times she applied for her working
visa, with the help of agents Liu Chung Hang and Kathleen Emily Vizcarra.
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| PINDUTIN DITO |
The first fake contract, with a certain Kung Yue Che
and processed between January 2022 and March 4, 2022, “induced the said Director
and his officers to act contrary to their public duty… under circumstances
which they would not otherwise have granted,” the charge said.
The second fake contract, with a certain Lee Wai
Kong, was processed between March 2022 and Jan. 31, 2023, and also resulted in
a visa being issued to her.
Jovilla’s lawyer, in mitigation, said what she did
was out of character.
Her last legitimate employer, for example, let her
go after she worked for them for 10 years, because they were emigrating from
Hong Kong.
Jovilla entered into the fake contracts because at her age,
it was difficult to get a proper employer, and she was desperate to remain in Hong
Kong because she had to support four older siblings in the Philippines who all
had health problems, the lawyer added.
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