The District Court has jailed Kowloon City District Councillor Virginia Fung for 18 months for fraudulently obtaining rental allowances totalling more than $600,000 by inflating the rental receipts for her ward office.

Fung, 59, was found guilty of four counts of furnishing false information.

Deputy Judge Douglas Yau said her act was premeditated, adding that she undermined the trust the public placed in her.

Between July 1997 and December 1999, the defendant served on the Kowloon City Provisional District Board.

Between September 1998 and September 2004, the defendant produced to the board and the council 72 rental receipts for claiming Government allowances for renting a ward office in Wuhu Street, Hung Hom.

These receipts purportedly showed that Fung had paid a monthly rent of $5,080, $9,000 or $10,000 in different periods of time between August 1998 and August 2004.

Investigations revealed that she had inflated the amounts of rental contained in those receipts, and as a result obtained a total of $603,550 in rental allowances from the Government.