Food company fined for employing illegal workers

A food company was fined $90,000 by Sha Tin Magistrates' Court for hirinjg persons not lawfully employable.

During an anti-illegal workers operation on October 7, 2010, four Chinese females who had entered Hong Kong as visitors were found working at a Japanese restaurant in Mongkok.

The person in charge of the restaurant confirmed that the illegal workers were employed as staff. Employee records were retrieved, including three copies of Hong Kong identity cards and an employment form with a HKIC number. Immigration records confirmed that all of the HKIC numbers were forged.

The four illegal workers were each sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment earlier for using and being in possession of a forged identity card and breaching their conditions of stay.

The defendant company was charged with four counts of being the employer of a person not lawfully employable. It pleaded guilty and was fined HK$90,000.

"Visitors are not allowed to take up employment in Hong Kong, whether paid or unpaid, without the permission of the Director of Immigration. Offenders are liable to prosecution and upon conviction face a maximum fine of $50,000 and up to two years' imprisonment," an Immigration Department spokesman said.

The spokesman also warned that it was an offence to use or possess a forged identity card.