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Late female tycoon Nina Wang's "good friend" Peter Chan Chun-chuen was sentenced to jail for 12 years for forgery of will and false use of instruments on Friday. The judge of the case repeatedly accused him for being "shameless" and "wicked" in his judgment.
The penalties for both counts of conviction were 12 years each, which will run concurrently.
Justice Andrew Macrae said in his judgment that notwithstanding Chan had received over three billion HK dollars from Wang when she was alive, he still tried to acquire her entire business empire after her death, describing it as "shameless" and "wicked" with "unparalleled greed" .
Macrae said on clear evidence, it was clear that Wang's intention of establishing the will in 2006, was for charitable purposes, such as assisting the children of her Chinachem Group to further their studies and so on, making good use for the mankind.
He said Chan's forgery was obviously " well executed", in order to make himself the sole benefit of Wang's will. If the ex- Feng Shui master really succeeded his forgery act, and make himself the sole beneficiary of the will, he would deprive the benefit of the large group of people who ought to be benefited from the legacy.
For doing so, Chan splashed out millions of dollars on both civil and criminal proceedings. Macrae said these behaviors were "particularly nasty and insidious" in nature.
Given the seriousness of the case, Macrae decided to make the maximum penalty of forgery, i.e 14 year imprisonment, as the starting point of sentencing.
He said Chan pleaded not, nor did he show even slightest remorse, he saw no possibility of a significant discount of his term in jail.
Nonetheless, Macrae praised Chan's team of lawyers for streamlining the complexity of the case, massively shortening the duration of the case from the estimated 60 days to 31 days. This helped him reduce his upcoming days in prison for two years.
The judge also ordered Chan to pay for the cost of "unmeritorious" request of preliminary inquiry, as well as DNA examination, totaled over two million HK dollars.
Siu Wai-sing, chief inspector of police, who was the person in charge of Chan's prosecution for the city's police force, welcomed the decision.
He said ever since Chan's arrest in 2010, until his imprisonment today, took more than three years, because he did everything he could to bid time for himself.
"He changed his legal team five times, and did DNA examination abroad in order to buy more time for himself," Siu said. "This judgment enhances Hong Kong's sound legal system; offences of this kind are by no means tolerable."
Chan waived hand and said "bye bye" to his wife Tam Miu Ching when the hearing ended. Both Tam and Chan's younger brother Ricky Chan Chun-kwok reduced to tears after the hearing. They did not comment about their intention of lodging an appeal.
