A Housing Department Chief Building Services Engineer was today sentenced to seven years' jail for accepting $3 million in bribes from contractors and suppliers.

The Court of First Instance also ordered Chan Kau-tai to pay the Government a restitution of $2.6 million, being the bribe money he had accepted.

The court heard the remaining $400,000 was another bribe payment Chan had agreed to accept from one of the contractors.

Chan, 58, was earlier found guilty by a jury of 10 counts of accepting an advantage.

Justice Pang Kin-kee said the evidence against the defendant was overwhelming and his testimony was unconvincing. He reprimanded the defendant for showing no remorse.

According to eight of the charges, Chan had accepted $2.4 million from a number of authority-approved contractors and suppliers for rendering them assistance in relation to business transactions with the authority and/or the department, and their performance of works.

Another charge said Chan had agreed to accept $400,000 from one of the contractors for the same reason.

The remaining charge said Chan had accepted $200,000 from an authority supplier for assisting the supplier's son in his application for a Government contract engineer post.

The offences took place between April 1999 and August 2001.