Mak only 'took advantage of grey area', lawyer says
Defence argues the former development minister was not trying to take unfair advantage of housing scheme for officials
The lawyer representing a former minister accused of defrauding the government has insisted his client was not trying to take unfair advantage of a housing scheme for civil servants.
Eric Kwok Tung-ming SC said former development secretary Mak Chai-kwong was only "getting around structural deficiencies" in the housing allowance system, not trying to defraud the government, at Mak's trial in the District Court yesterday.
Mak, 62, and former assistant highways director Tsang King-man, 57, are accused of defrauding the government of HK$700,000 by using two properties in which they had a financial interest to claim rental allowances between 1985 and 1990.
Mak faces two counts, and Tsang three counts, of using documents with intent to deceive the government.
During the defence's final submission, Mak's lawyer asked judge Johnny Chan Jong-herng to "put himself in the [1985] position, the moral values and the deficiencies of that time".
"A reasonable man may be of the view that the defendant took advantage of a grey area in the regulations, in that financial interest … [in the leased property] was not explained or defined prior to March 3, 1989," he said. "Before that clarification, what [the defendants] did was not necessarily illegal."
