Five plead guilty in ParknShop payroll fraud case
SCMP · 1 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
Five former employees of ParknShop and its contractors pleaded guilty at the District Court on Friday to conspiracy to defraud over falsified attendance records tied to warehouse labour at the supermarket chain’s eCommercial Distribution Centre. The Independent Commission Against Corruption said the scheme cheated ParknShop out of HK$3.2 million by creating pay claims for 13 workers who were not actually on shift
Key Points
- The defendants were Lau Kin-pong, 44, a former senior supervisor at ParknShop, Tai Kin-man, 43, a former assistant manager at Earnward Warehouse, and three former Logistics Network Management warehouse workers
- The three former warehouse workers were Wong Wai-fung, 27, Wong Pak-kan, 28, and Lau Tsz-pan, 28, all of whom admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud
- The ICAC said the fraud took place between June 2019 and April 2021 at ParknShop’s eCommercial Distribution Centre, where logistics staff sorted online orders and packed goods for customers
- Investigators said the five bought an identical clocking machine and used forged signatures, plus personal data from job applicants and former staff, to fabricate attendance records
- According to the ICAC, Logistics Network Management handled wage payments and billed ParknShop by shift hours, while Earnward Warehouse’s assistant manager verified daily attendance sheets
Why It Matters
The case centres on weaknesses in outsourced labour oversight, where payroll, supervision and attendance verification were split among different parties. For Hong Kong employers, the guilty pleas underline the legal and financial risks when internal controls over contractor staffing and timekeeping fail