Five former employees of Hong Kong supermarket chain ParknShop and its contractors have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud by falsifying workers’ attendance records to cheat the retail giant of HK$3.2 million (US$408,000).
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Friday that an investigation revealed that the former supermarket employees colluded with contractor staff over two years to deceive ParknShop by falsifying attendance records of 13 warehouse workers who were not on shift at the chain’s distribution centre.
The defendants – Lau Kin-pong, 44, then senior supervisor at ParknShop’s eCommercial Distribution Centre, Tai Kin-man, 43, then assistant manager of Earnward Warehouse, and three former warehouse workers of Logistics Network Management, Wong Wai-fung, 27, Wong Pak-kan, 28, and Lau Tsz-pan, 28 – all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud at the District Court on Friday.
The corruption watchdog said the operation took place at ParknShop’s eCommercial Distribution Centre, where logistics personnel sorted online orders and packed goods for distribution to customers.
The workers were provided by a contractor, Logistics Network Management, but supervised by another company, Earnward Warehouse.
According to the watchdog, Logistics Network Management facilitated wage payments and billed ParknShop based on workers’ shift hours, while daily attendance sheets were verified by the assistant manager of Earnward Warehouse.
Between June 2019 and April 2021, the five defendants bought an identical clocking machine to fabricate the attendance records of 13 logistics warehouse workers.