A former Hong Kong policeman has been spared jail over unauthorised access to confidential information in the force’s computer network.
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Eastern Court on Wednesday sentenced Lau Ka-lok, 35, to 240 hours of community service for performing more than 330 searches on the police’s case management and investigation system without approval between November 2023 and March 2024.
The court heard that Lau, now a hairstylist, had attempted to search for evidence of police misconduct as he felt he had been unfairly treated by senior colleagues.
The ex-constable, who was attached to the force’s Aberdeen division, was assigned to light duties from July 2019 after being diagnosed with psychotic depression four months earlier.
On March 7, 2022, Lau brandished a ball pen at colleagues after they questioned his emotional reaction to a workman who had taken him to task for his work attitude. His supervisor instructed a constable to handcuff Lau in fear that the defendant would harm himself or others.
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The defendant subsquently spent nearly a month at Tuen Mun’s Castle Peak Hospital for psychiatric treatment, after which he was barred from carrying firearms.
He was last assigned to manage the Aberdeen police station carpark before tendering his resignation in March last year.