From the pages of the South China Morning Post this week in 1974
Most of the legal profession in Hong Kong dropped in at the Supreme Court during the week to listen to Superintendent Ernest Hunt's lawyers fight his battle against a conviction under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
In November 1973, Hunt was jailed for one year by a Victoria District Court judge after he was found guilty of maintaining a standard of living exceeding his official income between May 15, 1971 and February 14, 1973.
Anthony Cripps QC said in submissions before the Full Court that the trial judge had misdirected himself in interpreting in Section 10 of the ordinance the word 'maintained' as having the same meaning as 'enjoys'.
He added that the trial judge had failed to distinguish 'maintaining a standard of living' from 'able to maintain' such a standard.
The trial judge should have considered that the assets and possessions of Mrs Hunt constituted a satisfactory explanation for why the husband was 'able' to maintain his standard of living, he said. Mr Cripps added that the section under which Hunt was charged called only for an explanation or an account of how he was able to maintain that standard of living, and not a full living account.
