9.
"If proprietors have any doubts about a caller's identity, they should ask for his contact telephone number or office address so that follow-up actions can be taken," the spokesman said.
"They should also check with the Labour Department or report immediately to the nearest police station if they have further doubts," he added.
End/Tuesday, January 10, 1995
Operator fined for running illegal guesthouse
A guesthouse operator was fined $7,000 by the North Kowloon Magistracy today (Tuesday) after he had pleaded guilty to a charge of running a guesthouse illegally in Mong Kok.
The court heard that officers of the Home Affairs Department's Office of the Licensing Authority inspected the Ha Wai Yi Guest House at flat 7F, Far East Mansion, 11 Nelson Street, and found that the establishment was being operated without a certificate of exemption or a licence.
The operator, Tang Chi-wai, was charged with operating the guesthouse in contravention of Section 5(1) of the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance.
In a related development, the operators of two guesthouses in Chungking Mansions have also been charged with keeping a guesthouse without a certificate of exemption or a licence.
They are expected to appear at the South Kowloon Magistracy on February 6.
A spokesman for the department stressed that enforcement action would be taken continuously in order to eliminate illegal guesthouses and hotels.
"Policing and prosecution will be a long-term exercise with no time-limit and will not be confined to a particular district," he added.
The spokesman also reminded operators that under the ordinance, offenders are liable on conviction to a fine and two years' imprisonment.
End/Tuesday, January 10, 1995
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