Former Starry Lee assistant gets eight months over HK$100 gift pack case

A former assistant of lawmaker Starry Lee Wai-king and a resident group volunteer have each been sentenced to eight months in jail today after being convicted of corruption for distributing gift packs containing products worth HK$100 to two residents to tempt them to vote for Vincent Cheng Wing-shun in a by-election three years ago.

The former assistant, Wong Wai-ha, 54, and Hoi Lai Estate resident Deng Yimei, 42, were previously found guilty at West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts of conspiracy to engage in corrupt conduct at an election by offering an advantage to others.

The court had heard that Wong and Deng distributed gift packs to Hoi Lai Estate residents between February 28 and March 11 in 2018, asking that they vote for Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong's candidate Cheng in a Legislative Council by-election. Cheng won the poll, but was not charged.

The gift packs contained daily necessities and food items, including cooking oil, medicated oil and a scarf.

In mitigation, the defense said both Wong and Deng came from the mainland, which lacks practices of democratic elections. Wong was also said to have been an advocate for new immigrants in the city while serving the community.

But the magistrate said elections must be fair and they have committed a serious crime, therefore handing both Wong and Deng an eight-month jail sentence.

Wong was hired by DAB chairwoman Lee's office as a part-time assistant at a salary of HK$45 per hour between March 2017 and August 2018.

However, Lee said neither she nor the office staff knew about the incident. She said they had nothing to do with election fraud and they only knew about the situation from media reports.