Judge in welfare fraud case

A 82-year-old former High Court judge and his barrister wife, who are accused of cheating social security payouts in Hong Kong by providing false information have a condo in Vancouver and an undisclosed bank account.


Miles Henry Jackson-Lipkin, and his wife Lucille Fung Yung-shim, 81, are accused of cheating social security payouts by providing false information in their forms in 2003 and 2004, Hong Kong media reported. Prosecutors allege when the couple applied for Hong Kong’s Comprehensive Social Security Assistance in September 2003 they had undisclosed bank accounts and stock shares in Hong Kong and overseas that totaled HK$1.9 million (C$274,620), far exceeding the limit for two people of HK$51,000 (C$7,371) to be eligible for the aid.


At the time they claimed their total bank deposits and cash amounted to HK$2,200 - HK$500 (C$318-$72) held by Jackson-Lipkin and HK$1,700(C$246) by his wife.


The revelation of their bank account and condo in Vancouver came in a videotaped interview played at the couple’s trial.


“You have a checking account and you have a mortgage with HSBC Canada, right?” an apparently surprised So Man-kuen, a female senior investigator asked Jackson-Lipkin in a March 3, 2005, videotaped interview that lasted about 90 minutes. “Can I have the address of the premises, the flat?”


During the interview, which he told So he requested to “clarify” a previous one with Hong Kong police investigators, Jackson-Lipkin sidestepped the address query, but took pains to show her paperwork (which the police had not requested) indicating he was overdrawn by C$119,591.26 (HK$819,985) in September 2003 and by C$115,114.38 in March 2004 for the previously undisclosed checking account at HSBC Canada.


The paperwork also had a reference to the mortgage.


The former judge also said he believed a letter he had written to “Sir Donald Tsang” complaining about the “gross misbehavior” of the welfare department concerning Jackson-Lipkin’s application for a HK$9,000 hearing aid had prompted the investigation into his financial affairs.


The investigation revealed the couple had taken five flights, two to Beijing and three to London, while receiving CSSA and living at the China Coast Community Care Home for the Aged.


The court heard that the couple’s lifestyle also included membership in the American Club.


 


 

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