11
Friday, February 8, 1974
BOGUS LABOUR OFFICER JAILED
€
A man who impersonated a Labour Department officer in an attempt
to trick a factory owner into giving him $800 was today sentenced to nine
months' imprisonment.
The man, Wan Chuen-man, 25, painting worker of Room 1308 at the
Fsz Wan Shan Housing Estate, appeared before Mr. T.J. Ryan in San Po Kong
Magistracy.
The court was told that Wan telephoned the personnel manager of
an electronics factory in To Kwa Wan on December 28, claiming to be an
officer of the Labour Department.
He asked for $800 for an advertisement
in a publication he said was called the Annual Labour Department Staff
Welfare Report.
The personnel manager was suspicious and contacted the Labour
Department, who immediately informed the police.
When Wan kept an appointment at the factory to collect the money,
he was arrested.
Mr. Ryan sentenced Wan, to six months' imprisonment for impersonating
a public officer, and nine months for obtaining property by deception, the
sentences to be served concurrently.
The Commissioner of Labour, Mr. Ian Price, today praised the factory
management for its quick action. "All too often in these cases, factory
managements either pay up and complain when it is too late, or, even worse,
pay up and say nothing," he said.
"We regularly