Banking: Corporate banker stole HKD20 million from customer

The court heard that at the time of the offences, Mok was responsible for handling various corporate customers of the bank, including Lok Heung Yuen Cafe Shop (LHY) and Chyau Fwu Holdings Limited (Chyau Fwu).

Between November 2000 and December 2003, the defendant fraudulently increased the overdraft limit of LHY from HKD5.5 million to HKD20.7 million by falsely putting up Chyau Fwu as the corporate guarantor of LHY, without their consent or knowledge.

Afterwards, the defendant used eight false instruction notes and a copy of a false instruction note, purportedly signed by the sole proprietor of LHY, to effect transfers of HKD14.452 million in total from its bank account to various recipients. In fact, the sole proprietor of LHY had never approved those fund transfers.

The court heard that of the HKD14.452 million, HKD6 million was transferred to a corporate client of the bank handled by the defendant but the purpose of the transfer could not be ascertained. The remaining HKD8.452 million was transferred to various bank accounts under the control of a person who was the owner of two companies, the accounts of which were also handled by the defendant.

The defendant falsely represented to the said person, who was then in financial difficulties, that some lenders were willing to lend money to him at a higher interest rate. He accepted the defendant's suggestion and received the HKD8.452 million loan, the majority of which was used to settle his outstanding credit facility amount with the bank.

After the HKD14.452 million was transferred out of the bank account of LHY, its overdraft balance accumulated to over HKD20 million. In order to settle this outstanding overdraft balance, the defendant used a copy of a false instruction note, purportedly signed by the owner of Chyau Fwu and its subsidiary Luckyfield Holdings Limited (Luckyfield), to draw down a HKD20 million loan in the name of Luckyfield, and credit it into the bank account of LHY.

The defendant, however, falsely represented to the bank that he had confirmed the loan with Luckyfield. In fact, the owner of Chyau Fwu and Luckyfield was unaware of the loan drawdown.

Between April and December 2003, the said person repaid the loan plus interest to the defendant. The defendant had never returned any money to Chyau Fwu.

The defendant knew that the said person's repayments which he had handled represented the crime proceeds, the court was told.