The Court of First Instance has jailed former Housing Department Chief Building Services Engineer Chan Kau-tai for six years for accepting over $1 million in bribes from approved building services contractors and suppliers.

Chan, 61, was also ordered to pay a restitution of $1.04 million to the Housing Authority, while another $60,000 cash seized by the Independent Commission Against Corruption from his office was forfeited.

Justice Michael Lunn said the bribery offences committed by the defendant were serious. They reflected a sustained pattern of behaviour for over eight months, and constituted a gross breach of trust.

Convicted

Chan was yesterday found guilty of nine counts of accepting an advantage. Seven charges stated he accepted $900,000 from five Housing Authority-approved contractors and suppliers between November 2000 and August 2001, for rendering them assistance in relation to their business transactions with the authority, and their performance of works.

Another charge stated that between June and July 2000, he agreed to accept $400,000 from one of the contractors for the same reason.

The remaining charge stated that in July 2001, the defendant accepted $200,000 from another supplier for assisting the supplier's son in his application for a government contract engineer post.