Bribery: former hotel staff accepted "tea money" from taxi drivers
Five former employees of Imperial Hotel, Kowloon, have been sent to jail for accepting "tea money" totalling over HKD60,000 from taxi drivers for referring hotel guests to hire their services
Hotel lobby services including concierge are notorious in "managing" access for taxi and other services. That management sometimes leads to drivers paying for that access. That's what lobby and security staff at the Imperial Hotel were doing.
Whenever guests requested taxi service, the hotel's policy required the defendants to offer assistance by accompanying them to Nathan Road outside the hotel to fetch taxis available for hiring. The court heard that instead of following the instructions, the defendants called taxi drivers, with whom they were acquainted, to provide the service and asked the guests to wait at the hotel lobby. The defendants would accept between HKD20 and HKD60 as "tea money" from the taxi drivers for each referral.
Kenny MO Kwai Kwok, 49, KWOK Siu Kei, 34, both former bell and security officers; and Simon HUIChun Pang, 31, a former security guard, each received a jail term of six weeks.
CHAU Ling, 33, a former bell and security officer; and WONG Chun Kui, 39, a former bell and security captain, were each jailed for two months.
Between May 2005 and November 2009, Mo, Kwok and Hui received "tea money" totalling HKD30,000 from taxi drivers, while Chau and Wong took a total of HKD30,800 from taxi drivers, the court was told.
YIP Ying Wai, 33, a former assistant front office manager of the hotel, who was also charged by the ICAC, earlier admitted one count of conspiring together with Mo, Kwok and Hui to accept a total of HKD1,000 in "tea money" from taxi drivers. He was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, and ordered to make a restitution of HKD1,000 to the hotel.
The defendants were ordered to make a restitution ranging from HKD5,400 to HKD15,400 to the hotel.
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