CHRIS LAU CHRIS.LAU@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 August, 2015, 12:53pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 August, 2015, 1:10pm
Food products were recalled in the 'gutter oil' scandal last year. Photo: Sam Tsang
A company director accused of falsely issuing documents for more than 1,000 tonnes of lard which was never inspected for human consumption today admitted in court his involvement in the “gutter oil” scandal that shook Taiwan and Hong Kong last year.
So Tat-wai, 60, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to make false instruments at the District Court.
The court heard that from 2001 to last year, So, as a director of Eagle View Company Limited, issued false certificates and reports for Kong Kwai-choi and Lai Yuk-kwan, from Globalway Corporation Limited.
The false documents suggested So’s company had inspected lard containers, finding them “dry and free of visible residue” and suitable to carry lard, even though no inspections had been carried out.
His company also issued documents which claimed the lard Globalway produced was fit for people to use – in the form of margarine, shortening and frying oil – while in fact it had never been sent to a laboratory for testing.
The lard was shipped to Taiwanese firm Chang Guann, which was last year found to have produced tainted cooking oil mixed with waste oil collected from cookers, fryers, grease traps and recycled grease from leather processing plants, that was sold to customers in Hong Kong.
The scandal forced hundreds of tonnes of cakes, bread, instant noodles, biscuits, steamed buns and dumplings to be removed from shelves in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Under police caution, the court also heard, the defendant said the false documents were a must for lard products to enter Taiwan.
So, who admitted issuing false documents since 2001, charged between HK$500 and HK$700 for each report, whereas the cost of having a sample of lard tested was about HK$5,000 to HK$6,000.
The court heard that answering the call from the Taiwanese authorities, the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety conducted a check of Globalway last September.
Police, who later stepped in, found in So’s office 27 false documents dating from 2007 to last year involving 1,121 tonnes of lard.
The crime came to light after the food centre spotted a batch of shipping documents issued by Globalway, which said its lard was fit for human consumption. But the receipt Globalway got when receiving the lard before it exported it to Taiwan said it was “lard for animal feed”.
Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi said a custodial sentence was inevitable, given the seriousness of the offence and that it involved export products.
But he granted So bail to seek a background report, before adjourning the sentencing to September 15.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1852360/company-director-gutter-oil-scandal-issued-false-papers
