{"id":1249,"date":"2025-06-30T23:34:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2025-07-19T23:51:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T15:51:23","slug":"magistrate-acquitted-a-defendant-of-living-on-earnings-of-prostitution-of-others-after-finding-prosecution-witnesses-completely-unbelievable-and-awarded-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/magistrate-acquitted-a-defendant-of-living-on-earnings-of-prostitution-of-others-after-finding-prosecution-witnesses-completely-unbelievable-and-awarded-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Magistrate acquitted a Defendant of living on earnings of prostitution of others after finding prosecution witnesses &#8220;completely unbelievable&#8221; and awarded costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<section class=\"section news-detail-section\" id=\"section_105953156\">\n\t\t<div class=\"bg section-bg fill bg-fill  bg-loaded\" >\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\n\t\t<div class=\"section-content relative\">\n\t\t\t\n\n\t<div id=\"text-2837705508\" class=\"text breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #627A80;\nfont-family: Merriweather;\nfont-size: 13px;\nfont-style: normal;\nfont-weight: 400;\nline-height: 150%; \/* 19.5px *\/\nletter-spacing: 0.39px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/\">Home<\/a> \/ <a href=\"\/news\/\">News<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n<style>\n#section_105953156 {\n  padding-top: 0px;\n  padding-bottom: 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/section>\n\t\n\t<section class=\"section news-detail-section\" id=\"section_1636088512\">\n\t\t<div class=\"bg section-bg fill bg-fill  bg-loaded\" >\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\n\t\t<div class=\"section-content relative\">\n\t\t\t\n\n<div class=\"row\"  id=\"row-794642405\">\n\n\n\t<div id=\"col-774358530\" class=\"col medium-12 small-12 large-12\"  >\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"col-inner\"  >\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t<div id=\"text-2294051273\" class=\"text h3\">\n\t\t\n\n<p>Magistrate acquitted a Defendant of living on earnings of prostitution of others after finding prosecution witnesses &#8220;completely unbelievable&#8221; and awarded costs<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div id=\"text-33236807\" class=\"text h5\">\n\t\t\n\n<p><strong>HKSAR v Fung *** (\u8c50**)<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\n<style>\n#text-33236807 {\n  font-size: 1.25rem;\n  text-align: left;\n  color: #003d4c;\n}\n#text-33236807 > * {\n  color: #003d4c;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div id=\"text-2119895972\" class=\"text txt-bold\">\n\t\t\n\n<p>30 June 2025\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"img has-hover x md-x lg-x y md-y lg-y\" id=\"image_853944383\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"img-inner dark\" >\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1020\" height=\"574\" src=\"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Fung-Hin-Ling-1024x576.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Fung-Hin-Ling-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Fung-Hin-Ling-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Fung-Hin-Ling-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Fung-Hin-Ling-18x10.jpeg 18w, https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Fung-Hin-Ling.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<style>\n#image_853944383 {\n  width: 100%;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t<div id=\"gap-537359342\" class=\"gap-element clearfix\" style=\"display:block; height:auto;\">\n\t\t\n<style>\n#gap-537359342 {\n  padding-top: 0px;\n}\n@media (min-width:550px) {\n  #gap-537359342 {\n    padding-top: 40px;\n  }\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n<p>Magistrate acquitted a Defendant charged with \u201cliving on earnings of prostitution of others\u201d after finding prosecution witnesses \u201ccompletely unbelievable\u201d and awarded costs.<\/p>\n<p>Three undercover officers (\u201cPW1 \u2013 PW3\u201d) acted as decoys and visited a bar. The prosecution&#8217;s case was that the officers were received by a \u201cfemale bar manager\u201d, brought to a nearby bar, and asked whether they wanted \u201cgirls that can go out with them\u201d (\u51fa\u8857\u5973). It was also the prosecution&#8217;s case that the \u201cfemale bar manager\u201d discussed the price, availability, and nationality of these girls with the officers. The operation took two days and turned overt on the second day after two of the officers each brought a girl with them to a nearby hotel room. It was the prosecution\u2019s case that the \u201cfemale bar manager\u201d was the defendant.<\/p>\n<p>In finding the defendant not guilty, Magistrate Kestrel Lam said he had \u201cno slightest hesitation in finding the prosecution\u2019s case unsatisfactory\u201d (\u6beb\u4e0d\u7336\u7591\u5730\u8a8d\u70ba\u63a7\u65b9\u6848\u60c5\u7121\u6cd5\u4ee4\u4eba\u6eff\u610f). The Court found that the evidence of the PWs had many significant inconsistencies, for which they could not provide any good reasons. Amongst other things (i) PW1 provided an awkward post-record method (viz to record the matters on a plain paper and then copying the same to a brand new notebook issued to him at a later stage) which was raised for the first time in court and never mentioned by PW2 \/ PW3; (ii) All PWs (coincidentally) said the conversation took place in a room known as \u201cA3\u201d whilst there were in fact no such room in the bar; (iii) PW2\u2019s and PW3\u2019s notebook post-record and witness statements were completely identical (including punctuation, unique adjectives, and typographical mistakes) but both strenuously denied they had ever referred to one another\u2019s record; (iv) Despite having consumed significant amount of whisky during the course of the operation, all witnesses avoided mentioning the alcohol concentration and the volume they consumed in their notebook and\/or witness statement, trying to avoid the impression that their recollection might have been affected.<\/p>\n<p>The Magistrate found the evidence of the witnesses \u201cunimaginable\u201d (\u532a\u5937\u6240\u601d), \u201cmaking up a lie to cover up another lie\u201d (\u7de8\u9020\u4e0d\u5be6\u8b0a\u8a00\u8a66\u5716\u63a9\u98fe), \u201ccompletely a pack of lies\u201d (\u5b8c\u5168\u5927\u8a71\u9023\u7bc7), and \u201ctantamount to an insult to the intelligence of everyone in the court\u201d (\u4fae\u8fb1\u6cd5\u5ead\u4e0a\u6240\u6709\u4eba\u7684\u667a\u6167). The Court found that the crux of the case depends on whether the Court can safely rely on the witness\u2019s evidence. For the foregoing reasons, the Court said it had no slightest hesitation to acquit the Defendant.<br \/><br \/>Following the acquittal, the Court further made a costs order in favour of the Defence.<\/p>\n<p>Simon So appeared with Jack Hui for the Defendant in the 4-day trial.<\/p>\n\t<div id=\"gap-2006120220\" class=\"gap-element clearfix\" style=\"display:block; height:auto;\">\n\t\t\n<style>\n#gap-2006120220 {\n  padding-top: 60px;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t<div class=\"ux-menu stack stack-col justify-start ux-menu--divider-solid\">\n\t\t\n\n\t<div class=\"ux-menu-link flex menu-item menu-button-link\">\n\t\t<a class=\"ux-menu-link__link flex\" href=\"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/news\/\" >\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"ux-menu-link__text\">\n\t\t\t\tBack to News\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n<style>\n#section_1636088512 {\n  padding-top: 0px;\n  padding-bottom: 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/section>\n\t\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Magistrate acquitted a Defendant charged with \u201cliving on earnings of prostitution of others\u201d after finding prosecution witnesses \u201ccompletely unbelievable\u201d and awarded costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}