A former Bank of China (Hong Kong) clerk has been jailed by Eastern Magistracy, and two others given community service orders, for bribery in the retrieval of new banknotes bearing special serial numbers.

Lee Muk-yiu, 46, was jailed 30 weeks. The court ordered the Independent Commission Against Corruption must return about $139,500 in banknotes seized from his home to the bank.

Cashier Kan Hin-kuen, 34, and clerk Tsui Tsz-tuen, 45, were ordered to perform 150 hours and 180 hours of community service. Lee pleaded guilty to two counts of offering an advantage. Kan and Tsui pleaded guilty to one count of accepting an advantage.

Lee and Tsui were responsible for arranging and distributing banknotes to various branches of the bank, while Kan was a cashier at the Harbour Road branch. On the instruction of Lee, Kan made requests for a particular amount of banknotes to be delivered to his branch. Lee would then arrange for banknotes bearing special serial numbers to be packaged in the bundles.

When Kan received the ordered banknotes, he would unpack them and replace the special banknotes with ordinary ones Lee had earlier given him. After retrieving the special banknotes, Kan handed them to Lee.

Lee offered money to Kan as reward for his assistance. Kan accepted $5,000 in bribes from Lee who sold some of the special banknotes on the market at a price much higher than their face value. The total amount of special banknotes obtained through Kan was about $300,000.

Lee admitted offering $10,000 to Tsui, while the latter admitted accepting about $60,000. A search of Tsui's home recovered $32,770, and he confirmed that it was part of the corrupt payments he had received from Lee. Lee admitted that 260 of the banknotes found in his home were obtained through the assistance of Kan.