Hong Kong resident jailed for conspiracy to obtain airline services by deception
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A Hong Kong resident was arrested and prosecuted by the Immigration Department (ImmD) for conspiracy to obtain airline services by deception and was sentenced to 32 months’ imprisonment at the District Court today (June 4).
The ImmD launched a series of anti-illegal migration operations in 2020 and successfully detected a case involving a Hong Kong resident (defendant) conspiring with others to assist a Mainlander to seek illegal migration to Canada. Investigators discovered that in 2019, the defendant approached a middleman, who arranged for him to obtain a boarding pass for a Toronto-bound flight at an airline check-in counter of an airport on the Mainland using his Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport. He then passed the boarding pass to the middleman inside the airport’s restricted area, who on the same day transferred it to another Mainlander inside the airport’s restricted area. The Mainlander later boarded the flight to Toronto, Canada, using the defendant’s boarding pass.
During the investigation, the defendant admitted to have conspired with others to assist the Mainlander to seek illegal migration. He was later charged with one count of conspiracy to obtain airline services by deception. The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge at the District Court and was sentenced to 32 months’ imprisonment today.
The ImmD spokesman warned that under the laws of Hong Kong, people who, by any deception, dishonestly obtain services from another shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, upon conviction, to imprisonment for 10 years.
“Under the laws of Hong Kong, it is an offence to make a false representation to Immigration Officers. Offenders are liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, the maximum penalty of a fine of $150,000 and imprisonment for 14 years,” the spokesman reiterated.