A Mainland resident was charged at the Sha Tin Magistrates’ Courts with three counts of making false representation to an Immigration Department (ImmD) staff member, and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment yesterday (October 5).
 
     The 31-year-old male defendant was admitted as a student to Hong Kong in 2017 to study at a local university. After graduation in 2018, the defendant submitted three entry permit applications under Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates to the ImmD from 2019 to 2020, and reported that he was employed by three local companies respectively. Upon an assessment of the cases, the ImmD verified those three companies and discovered that their reported addresses were false. The three entry permit applications of the defendant were all refused and the ImmD thus began an investigation against the defendant.
 
     The defendant admitted under caution that through the arrangement of false employment contracts by an employment agency in 2019, he falsely claimed to the ImmD that he was employed by local companies in order to facilitate his entry permit applications. The said agency had arranged those three companies to be his companies of employment. Nevertheless, the defendant held no knowledge of those companies. The defendant pleaded guilty to the three charges of making false representation to Immigration staff and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by the Sha Tin Magistrates’ Courts yesterday.
 
     “Under the laws of Hong Kong, any person who makes false representation to an Immigration officer commits an offence. Offenders are liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, subject to the maximum penalty of a fine of $150,000 and imprisonment for 14 years,” an ImmD spokesman said.