Three backstage staff of a 2022 concert by Hong Kong boy band Mirror have been acquitted of conspiracy to defraud authorities by understating the weight of stage equipment, including a giant screen that collapsed and injured two dancers during the show.
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The District Court on Friday announced its verdict on the case implicating the trio after a four-by-four-metre (13-by-13-foot) screen fell and hit two dancers at the Hong Kong Coliseum on July 28, 2022.
Engineering Impact project managers Ng Hoi-ying, 43, and Lam Chi-wah, 62, and Infinity Project Management stage technician Joseph Leung Yiu-cho, 50, were accused of plotting to induce the Leisure and Cultural Services Department to expedite a vetting process for the show with bogus stage equipment data.
The court heard the trio, in information provided to the department to obtain its approval, said that six overhanging screens used in the show weighed a total of 3,600lbs (1,633kg), but a subsequent investigation revealed their actual weight was 9,852.5lbs.
The information was also found to have under-represented the weight of nine categories of items hung onto the Coliseum’s main roof truss, with eight public address speakers weighing a total of 12,240lbs reported to be 1,600lbs.
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Prosecutors argued the conspiracy had benefited Engineering Impact to the detriment of Music Nation, the show’s investor, which lost nearly HK$90 million (US$11.5 million) due to ticket refunds after the cancellation of eight remaining performances.