Two former engineers and a Great Eagle Engineering Company Limited foreman were sentenced to jail terms of up to three years and eight months at District Court today for their involvement in a $51 million fraud.

Eric Wong Cho-tat, 41, Great Eagle Engineering's former chief engineer, received a jail sentence of three years and two months. Perry Wong Hon-yin, 37, a former senior engineer, was sentenced to three years and eight months.

Both were each ordered to repay $7 million to their former employer.

Yiu To-wing, 37, the  former foreman, was jailed for three years, and required to pay a restitution of about $690,000 to his former employer.

Offences a serious breach of trust

In sentencing, Deputy Judge Allan Wyeth said custodial sentences were imposed, in view of the serious offences as well as a serious breach of trust committed by the defendants over a long time period.

Wong Cho-tat and Wong Hon-yin had each pleaded guilty to five counts of agents conspiring to use documents with intent to deceive their principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, while Yiu was found guilty of a similar offence.

Great Eagle Engineering, a subsidiary of publicly listed Great Eagle Holdings Limited, provides maintenance services to buildings of Great Eagle Holdings.

The court heard that from August 1995 to March 2002, Wong Cho-tat and Wong Hon-yin had conspired with Yiu to use false job orders and purchase requisition forms of Great Eagle Engineering for the purported supply of materials or labour as well as bogus invoices of four shell companies with intent to deceive Great Eagle Engineering.

As a result of the fraudulent means, Great Eagle Engineering was deceived into paying a total of $51 million to the four shell companies, which were under the control of the defendants, the court heard.