Three former Cathay staff jailed up to 6 months over taking bribes for discounted tickets

A former Cathay Pacific flight purser and two ex-attendants were sentenced to up to six months in jail for accepting around HK$90,000 in bribes to assist others in enjoying the staff benefit of purchasing air tickets at concessionary rates.

The 36-year-old former purser Lau Ching-man was jailed for six months on Thursday after pleading guilty to three counts of conspiracy to obtain advantages. The other two defendants, Lee Chung-fai, 28, and Wong Oi-ting, 33, were each sentenced to 5 months in prison for one count of the same charge Lau faced.

The court heard that between 2018 and 2019, Lau accepted bribes from an overseas fashion designer to help her and her friends purchase discounted air tickets using the staff benefits under Cathay’s Companion Travel Scheme.

The scheme allows Cathay employees to nominate a partner, sibling, family member, or friend as a travel companion to enjoy ticket discounts. Staff at the airline are prohibited from receiving advantages for nominating others as travel companions.

Lau also contacted Lee and Wong to nominate the two friends of the fashion designer as their travel companions, in which Lee and Wong respectively accepted a bribe of about US$5,000 (~HK$39,000) and US$3,500 (~HK$27,000).

The trio were said to have caused Cathay to lose around HK$860,000 in revenue for a total of 49 flight tickets that were purchased at concessionary rates. 

District Judge Anthony Kwok Kai-on ordered the three defendants to pay a total of around HK$90,000, equivalent to the amount of bribes involved, as restitution to Cathay Pacific.

Kwok said the charges were to supposedly start with six months of imprisonment each, since the three defendants will compensate Cathay, they were handed 6 months and 5 months in jail, respectively.