*********************************************
The Immigration Department, for the first time, had successfully caught and charged a mainlander who tried to enter Hong Kong by using a forged identity card through an e-channel, a department spokesman said today (February 21).
He Fuxiang, 40, pleaded guilty at the Sha Tin Magistrates' Court today to a charge of using forged identity card. He was convicted and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
The defendant admitted that he had paid RMB250 for a forged Hong Kong smart identity card bearing his own personal particulars through a middle-man in Shenzhen for job seeking in Hong Kong.
On February 13, he tried to use the forged identity card to enter Hong Kong through e-channel at Lo Wu control point but he failed to do so. He was subsequently arrested by an Immigration officer.
Another 24-year-old man who tried to enter Hong Kong through e-channel by the same fraud will appear at the Sha Tin Magistrates' Court tomorrow (February 22).
The apprehension of the two people charged confirmed that the security systems of the smart identity card and e-channel were reliable, the spokesman said. "Any forged document will be detected."
Under the laws of Hong Kong, anyone who, without lawful authority of reasonable excuse, uses a forged identity card are liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, the maximum penalty will be a fine of $100,000 and imprisonment for 10 years.
Ends/Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:43
NNNN
