 |
| Shatin Court |
A Filipina mother walked into jail today clutching her seven-month-old baby after she was sentenced at Shatin Court to seven months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to defraud the Immigration Department, by signing a fake employment contract that led to her being given a domestic helper’s visa.
Mariclaire Calagui, 41 years old, pleaded guilty in March
last year but her sentencing had been postponed pending the result of a separate
case in which the agent who allegedly arranged her fake contract was facing a similar
charge.
Ironically, that agent, Kathleen Emily Vizcarra, 36 years
old, was acquitted last Jan. 26 after a trial also at Shatin Court, over her
role in the conspiracy, which was to submit to the Immigration Department the
fake contract in which Calagui signed on
as a domestic helper of a certain Lee Ka Ming Billy.
 |
| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Both were charged by the Immigration Department with conspiracy
to defraud, contrary to Common Law and punishable under section 1590(6) of the
Crimes Ordinance.
The conspiracy committed between September 2021 and Nov. 29,
2023. induced Immigration officers “to act contrary to their public duty,” the
complaint said, “under circumstances which they would not otherwise have
granted.”
Upon learning of Vizcarra’s acquittal, Acting Principal
Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong asked Calagui if she would like to change her guilty
plea. When she said she would stick to her plea, Magistrate Cheang was left to set
the sentence.
 |
| Basahin ang detalye! |
In mitigation, Calagui’s lawyer said Calagui committed the
offense not to compete for local jobs, but to take care of her two children in Hong
Kong; her husband works as a family driver.
He urged Magistrate Cheang to give her a 50 per cent
discount for her guilty plea, and choose a starting point of six months in
jail, based on a case decided by the High Court in the past.
But the prosecutor suggested another past case in which the
starting point was higher, prompting Magistrate Cheang to call a recess twice to
consider the two suggestions.
He said later that he found four relevant cases and chose one which suggested a starting point of 12 months. He then gave Calagui a 40 per cent discount, instead of the one-third (or 33 per cent) cut usually given in return for a guilty plea, resulting in a final sentence of seven months.
