Social News
Written by: Li Huina
2020-07-06 13:58
Date of last update: 2020-07-06 13:58The former assistant principal and former project coordinator of the Hong Kong College of Commerce conspired to falsify the attendance records of the trainees during his tenure to defraud the Employees Retraining Board of nearly 170,000 yuan. The two earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud. Today (6th ) Were sentenced to 160 hours and 80 hours of community service orders in West Kowloon Magistrates' Court respectively.
The first defendant Cao Minhe (34 years old) and the second defendant Zhang Haoxiang (32 years old) were the assistant principals and project coordinators of the Hong Kong College of Commerce at the time of the incident. They were accused of conspiring to defraud the Employees Retraining Board from June 2017 to March 28, 2018, including the preparation and submission of false student attendance records, in order to induce the authorities to grant grants and increase school places.
ICAC Assistant Principal and Former Director of the Fraudulent Record Fraud Training Bureau 168,000
Assistant principal of the training institution and a director involved in fraudulent attendance records to defraud the Retraining Board of 170,000 yuan
The first defendant Cao Minhe (left) and the second defendant Zhang Haoxiang (right) were sentenced to 160 and 80 hours of social service orders, respectively. (Profile picture)
The defendant forged the attendance records of the three students
The case stated that during his tenure, Cao and Zhang were responsible for managing the retraining courses provided by the Employee Retraining Board provided by the school. Before each financial year, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry applies to the Employees Retraining Board for the allocation of places to run approved retraining courses. If the vocational college meets the requirements of the Employees Retraining Board, including an average attendance rate of 80% or more of the courses, it can apply for additional school places and additional retraining courses.
In May 2017, Cao applied to the Employee Retraining Board for additional school places to add a bookkeeping course. Since the average attendance rate of the courses offered earlier was only 78%, the application was rejected. In order to meet the threshold for attendance, the two defendants forged the attendance records of three students. The three students never attended the class or often missed the class.
The Employee Retraining Board therefore approved the application of the business school from August 2017 to March 2018, with an additional 44 places to open two retraining courses. The business school was also reimbursed the training fee of 168,000 yuan.
Case number: WKCC271/2020