A former director of an engineering consultancy has been jailed for 2½ years for deliberately concealing bogus test results for the world’s longest sea crossing, which connects Hong Kong with mainland China and Macau.
Albert Leung Wing-keung, 67, was earlier found guilty of defrauding the government out of nearly HK$2 million (US$255,800) by covering up deceptive practices at a testing laboratory set up to monitor the quality of concrete used in the multibillion-dollar construction of the 55km Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
District Judge Ada Yim Shun-yee told West Kowloon Court on Friday that Leung’s offence had undermined the public’s confidence in the safety and quality of the mega bridge and damaged the reputation of engineering projects in the Greater China region.
Yim said the defendant, a former operations director of Jacobs China Limited (JCL), chose not to report the irregularities to authorities despite knowing the extensive failure of the firm’s quality management system had persisted for years.
She said Leung could not shift the blame regardless of the misguided legal advice he received in relation to his duty of disclosure.
“Being the director of operations of JCL, and with his experience in the industry, he knew the senior management was acting dishonestly and it was his own decision to conceal the matter from [the civil engineering department],” she added.
Yim set a sentence starting point of three years’ imprisonment before knocking off six months in light of Leung’s positive good character, contribution to the academic field, deteriorating health and psychiatric problems he suffered after his arrest.
The judge convicted Leung last week based on deliberate omissions to the Civil Engineering and Development Department in 2016 and 2017, after it was made aware of abnormal test results from the lab in Siu Ho Wan on Lantau Island.
The court heard lab technicians had either substituted genuine concrete specimen cubes with iron piles or cubes of higher compressive strength, or changed computer dates when compiling reports.
Leung came to know about the simulated test results in August 2016, but did not tell the department until after a criminal probe by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, by which time JCL had received more than HK$1.97 million from the government for its satisfactory performance.
Co-defendant and former JCL divisional director Leslie Harry Swann was acquitted after trial because of his lack of knowledge of the concealment.
The department was forced to spend an extra HK$58 million to review nearly 400,000 test reports and reconduct testing at 221 locations on the bridge and on 1,355 concrete samples.
The court heard Leung lost his job with JCL because of the case and was diagnosed with a major depressive disorder following the lengthy proceedings.
The father of two last worked as a part-time executive director at another engineering consultancy firm, earning a monthly salary of HK$150,000.
He had offered to reimburse the government even though his senior counsel considered the move unnecessary.
The court previously convicted 19 lab workers for either defrauding the government or using false documents in relation to the case. All were jailed for between eight and 32 months on fraud-related charges.
Fraud is punishable by up to seven years in the District Court.
