North District Council Chairman Li Kwok-fung has been sentenced to four months jail by Fanling Magistracy for making $129,000-worth of false rental expense claims.

Magistrate William Ng said the offence was serious and constituted a breach of trust. He granted Li $2,000 bail, pending his appeal against the sentence.

The offence occurred between January 2000 and May 2002. Li was Fanling District Rural Committee Chairman and a North District Councillor. He was elected the council's chairman in January 2004. He submitted a rental agreement to the council's secretariat, purporting that he rented half of the first floor of the rural committee's building as his District Councillor ward office for $5,000 per month.

Li then submitted 29 rental receipts, falsely representing he incurred rental expenses of $145,000. As a result, the council's secretariat was misled into issuing $129,027 in reimbursements. Investigations found the rural committee had not leased the premises to Li, nor had it received any rent from him.

Li instructed his assistants to prepare the false rental receipts, which were signed by himself in his capacity as the committee's chairman.

Former North District Council member Tang Kun-nin, convicted of making false rental expenses of $30,000, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service.