An attempt to make money out of his Hong Kong Identification Card (HKID) as a permanent resident has resulted in a Filipino being jailed for a total of 15 months.
Ricardo de Austria, 53 years old, pleaded guilty today at
Shatin Court to allowing another person to use his HKID to get a job, and for
allowing his bank account to be used as depository for the salary earned from
that employment. For that, he admitted getting a $1,500 monthly reward for two years.
His offenses came to light in September 2022 after Immigration
Department officers raided a Fairwood restaurant in an anti-illegal worker
operation and arrested Mohammad Shah, an Indian holding a recognizance form, for
illegally working in the kitchen.
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Shah turned out to have used de Austria’s HKID to land the
job.
His salary was also paid into de Austria’s Hang Seng Bank
account from Aug. 6, 2020 to Sept. 7, 2022, amassing a total of $414,781.33.
This became the basis for de Austria’s money laundering charge, for which he was
jailed for 12 months.
De Austria’s second case, transferring an identity card to
another person, resulted from lending his HKIC to his co-defendant in the case,
Leila Fonte, 55. Shah, her Indian live-in partner, cannot be employed legally
in Hong Kong because he is a holder of the recognizance form and subject to
deportation.
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De Austria was sentenced to 12 months for each of the
charges. However, Acting Principal Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong ordered that only
three months of the second sentence be added to the first, with the rest being
served concurrently.
For her part, Fonte was sentenced earlier to a total of 36 months in jail after being convicted of eight charges, including money
laundering, conspiracy to use de Austria’s identity card, and transferring an
identity card to another person.
Aside from Shah, Immigration also arrested over 20 overstaying
foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) working as cleaners in the same restaurant.
“After in-depth investigation, it was discovered that the
arrested FDHs had all used others' identity cards during job seeking. They
would also borrow the rightful holders' bank accounts for receiving salaries.
The rightful holders would provide their ATM cards for the FDHs to withdraw the
salaries every month in return for a reward of around HK$2,000,” Immigration said.
These salaries totalled $2.5 million.
Aside from Fonte, five people had been jailed for 12 to 15 months,
it added.
“The case is still under investigation, and the Immigration does
not rule out the possibility of further prosecutions,” it said in a press
statement.
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