A senior engineer and assistant clerk have been jailed four years and eight months for their involvement in a substandard piling scam at Tin Chung Court in Tin Shui Wai.

Wong Shun-wah, 42, former senior engineer of B+B Construction Company (formerly known as Franki Contractors), and To Man-kum, 37, former assistant clerk of works for Hsin Yieh Architects & Associates, today pleaded guilty to one joint charge of conspiracy to defraud at the Court of First Instance.

Justice Michael Burrell said it was a serious offence for the defendants to submit falsified records to conceal substandard piling. But it was fortunate the scam was discovered before the occupation of the units, otherwise lives might have been jeopardised.

Hsin Yieh was the architectural consultant appointed by the Housing Authority to supervise the construction of Blocks 1 and 2 of Tin Chung Court Phase I, a Home Ownership Scheme project. B+B was the project's piling contractor.

The case arose from a referral from the Housing Department, which suspected that corruption was involved. The Independent Commission Against Corruption found that conspiracy to defraud had been committed.

Short piles

Between October 1996 and February 1997, the defendants conspired together to defraud Hsin Yieh and the HA by making false representations that the lengths of all as-built driven piles for Blocks 1 and 2 had purportedly reached the depths reported in the as-built drawings submitted in the registered structural engineer report. They also falsely represented that those piles had purportedly reached the acceptable depths in accordance with contract requirements. Out of 32 piles tested, some were up to seven metres short.

The incident was uncovered in 1999 when lifts could not be installed due to excessive tilting of the elevator shafts caused by uneven settlements.

The defendants were earlier found guilty of the same charge and sentenced to seven years jail in October 2003. The Court of Appeal upheld their convictions in July 2005, before they further appealed to the Court of Final Appeal. It allowed their appeals and ordered a re-trial.