TNAG-1363-FCO40-1809-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 168

QUESTION NO. 7

Reply by the Honourable A.H. Hsu, JP, Secretary for Administrative Services

and Information to a question by

Dr. Hon. Henrietta IP in Legislative Council on 24 July 1985

Question: Could the Government inform this Council :-

(a)

(b)

whether it is aware that some Hong Kong organizations are passing themselves off as charities and are collecting donations from the public; and

what, plan it has to step up the supervision of fund-raising activities to protect the public from being cheated?

(a)

Sir,

This question relates to the control of

organisations engaged in fund-raising activities

and the proper disbursement of such funds for genuine charitable purposes.

2.

As regards the first part of the

question, the simple answer is that the

Government will become aware of such incidents

when these are brought to the attention of the

Police. Any organisation. which tries to raise funds from the public under the guise of charity commits an offence under sections 17 and 18 of

the Theft Ordinance, Cap. 210 and the Police will act on any responsible complaint. Any person found guilty of this offence is liable on conviction upon indictment to imprisonment for 10

years.

3.

In the last few years, the Police have dealt with very few cases relating to fraudulent fund-raising activities.