No more pension as former sergeant suspended four times sees judicial review rejected

A former police sergeant, who had been suspended from duty four times, saw his application for a judicial review against the force’s disciplinary hearing that stripped him of pension rejected by the High Court on Friday. 

The former cop Au Chi-wai filed a judicial review to the High Court last September. In the writ, he said he had no idea about the force’s disciplinary hearing involving him and asked the court to rule the results of the hearing as invalid. 

He also requested that the court to order the force to reimburse his pension immediately. 

In the written judgment released on Friday, High Court judge Keith Yeung Kar-hung rejected Au’s application for a judicial review. 

Yeung mentioned that Au joined the force in May 1988 and was promoted to sergeant in August 2004. Yet, he was suspended from duty in 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021. 

Yeung added that as Au applied for early retirement and his pre-retirement leaves, the force had been calling and mailing him to inform him of a disciplinary hearing. However, Au just said he had retired and hung up. 

Au also refused to further answer police’s calls and ignored dozens of home visits, as police left behind documents, letters and minutes of the hearing at his doorstep. In June last year, a Force Discipline Officer dismissed Au and stripped him of his retirement benefits. 

Yeung then ruled that Au remained employed as a police officer until July last year and the disciplinary hearing could continue and remained a legal procedure. The judge added Au was informed of the hearing results last June as well as his right to file an appeal. 

Given that Au refused to receive relevant documents and chose not to appeal the results. Yeung believed that Au had no valid ground for his application and he had no chance in winning the judicial review. Therefore, he rejected Au’s application. 

Yeung also ordered Au to pay the legal fees for handling his judicial review application.