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| Accused is charged with lending his identity to someone for a fee |
A Filipino accused of letting someone else use his permanent resident ID to get a job and then collecting payment in return, is now detained in jail to await his trial after a Shatin magistrate entered a not guilty plea for him.
Acting Principal Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong remanded Ricardo
de Austria, 53 years old, in jail custody after noting that he had asked for adjournments
in 10 previous hearings, which were granted because he kept presenting new lawyers
who needed time to study his case.
“Let’s see if staying in jail will make you more efficient,”
Magistrate Cheang said in a hearing Friday (Aug. 30), chiding de Austria for wasting the court’s time.
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| PINDUTIN DITO |
He also increased de Austria’s bail to $50,000 in cash from
$1,000, with conditions such as surrender of his Philippine passport, reporting
to police regularly and not leaving his current address without informing the
police one day ahead.
“You should be able to afford that,” Magistrate Cheang said,
noting that de Austria previously hired
private lawyers to request three of the 10 adjournments.
Since the defendant was unable to post the new bail, he was ordered detained until his next court appearance which has been set down on Nov. 4 for a pre-trial review. The actual trial is scheduled for Nov. 18-19.
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De Austria is charged, along with fellow Filipino Leila
Fonte, of transferring an identity card to another person, which is punishable
under section 7AA(1)(a) of the Registration of Persons Ordinance.
He is accused of lending his HKID card to Fonte in 2020; the
card was subsequently used by Fonte’s asylum seeker-boyfriend to get a job.
He is also charged, along with Fonte, of dealing with
property that represents proceeds from a crime, a violation of the Organized
and Serious Crimes Ordinance, for the $414,781.33 deposited into his Hang Seng
Bank account between Aug. 6, 2020 and Sept. 7, 2022.
The amount represented payment to de Austria for the use of
his HKID.
Fonte was jailed for three years last May after pleading
guilty to eight offenses, including allowing her HKID card to be used by a
former domestic helper who was among those rounded up in an anti-illegal work
crackdown of the Immigration Department.
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