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| Many similar cases are still pending at Shatin court |
A Filipina who was able to get a domestic helper’s visa using a fake work contract and then helped three others do the same, was sentenced today to a total of 18 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to all four charges of “conspiracy to defraud” filed against her.
Russel Eco, aged 34, pleaded guilty to each of the four charges
of violation of Common Law and the Crimes Ordinance, as they were read to her
at the Shatin Court, in front of Acting Principal Magistrate Amy Chan.
Eco was linked to the three fake contracts – between Agnes Villanueva
and employer Chan Hong Tak in March to July 2023, between Zuliana BT Paiman
Wiro and Wong Wai Ki in May-August 2023, and between Elvira Caburnay and Ko Chi
Lik in July 2023 -- because she signed as
a witness and helped process the papers at the Immigration Department.
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| TAWAG NA! |
She was charged for signing a fake contract herself with
Wong Lut Ki between 2022 and Aug. 15, 2023.
According to facts that Eco confirmed were correct, an
unidentified man named Ken provided copies of the fake contracts to her and the
three other Filipinas, who paid $9,000 to $10,000 each to have them processed
at the Immigration Department.
Once their working visas were approved, they were able to stay
in Hong Kong and work not for the employers named in their contracts, who were each paid $3,000 in return for signing up as
employers.
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| PINDUTIN |
Instead, the women worked in illegal parttime jobs that paid
more.
The misrepresentation defrauded the Director of Immigration
and “thereby … induce(d) the said director and his officers to act contrary to
their public duty … which they would not otherwise have granted,” the charge
said.
Magistrate Chan initially imposed 12 months’ imprisonment for
each conspiracy charge in which she helped the three other helpers – but gave her
a one-third discount for her guilty plea, leaving a net of eight months.
But she ordered that the penalty for the third charge run
concurrently with the two others.
To the resulting net of 16 months, she added another two months
– half of the original four months she intended to impose on Eco for signing the
fake contract – for a total of 18 months’ sentence.
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| PADALA NA! |
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