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Speech by the Hon the Attorney Generat Mr. Michael Thomas MG, Q.C.
on the Motion of Thanks
-11 November 1987
ATTORNEY GENERAL
sir,
seek the
I rise to support the motion of thanks for your
paaress
and
le
in doing so I would like to take up five topics that have been raised
by my colleagues in the debate a week ago.
Xe.
Commercial Crime
Sir, first commercial crime in general. Both my hon. Friends
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Mr. Peter C, Wong and M. Peter Poon have spoken of the
need for improvements in the way..complex commercial crime cases are
handled and tried. I believe no one disputes that it is of prime
in portance to an international financial centre such as ours that we
should possess efficient means of combatting and punishing commercial
crime. As a matter of fact the Government has devoted considerable
resources to the fight against commercial crime in recent years.
was only in 1980 that my predecessor first set up a Commercial Crime
Unit in the Prosecutions Division of the Legal Department by
assigning to that hit a directorate officer and two counsel.
It
Prior
to that, commercial crime had to compete for time and attention with
But other serious crimes. Today, the Commercial Crime Unit has & eight
directorate officers and 15 other experienced counsel. This growth
And
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