Man jailed six months for trying to ‘buy’ vaccination certificate with HK$1,000

A 25-year-old man was jailed Wednesday for six months for he attempted to “buy” a Covid-19 vaccination certificate from a nurse with HK$1,000 without actually getting the shot. 

The defendant Cheung Chin-hang had earlier pleaded guilty to offering an advantage to an agent, breaching the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. 

Passing the sentence in West Kowloon Court today, Acting Principal Magistrate Veronica Heung Shuk-han said it was selfish of Cheung to ask the nurse to assist him in getting a fake vaccination record when the government spared no effort to keep the severe epidemic situation under control. 

Given the offense’s serious nature, Heung started the jail term at nine months and reduced it by one-third considering Cheung’s guilty plea. 

The court heard that Cheung was a community health practitioner of a District Health Center under the Health Bureau at the material time and his workplace was subject to the Vaccine Pass arrangement, meaning he must get inoculated against Covid before going to work. 

On September 21 last year, Cheung visited the community vaccination center at Osman Ramju Sadick Memorial Sports Center and offered HK$1,000 to an enrolled nurse for issuing a vaccination certificate without actually getting the vaccine shot. 

The nurse rejected Cheung’s request and reported the matter to Quality HealthCare Medical Services Ltd, which operated that vaccination center. 

A corruption complaint was then filed to the ICAC, leading to an investigation which revealed Cheung’s medical exemption certificate expired a day before his visit to the vaccination center. Cheung later said he was unwell after receiving the first jab and so he tried to bribe the nurse to get a vaccination certificate.