Hong Kong court was wrong to allow TV star Mat Yeung Ming to reverse guilty plea in careless driving case, prosecutors argue
- In addition to seeking to overturn the plea reversal, prosecutors are also challenging Yeung’s acquittal on separate charge
- Charges stem from car accident involving TVB star on Magazine Gap Road last year
Hong Kong television star Mat Yeung Ming should not have been allowed to reverse his guilty plea for careless driving and illegal window tinting, according to prosecutors, who also want to overturn his acquittal on a separate charge.
Acting deputy director of public prosecutions Jonathan Man Tak-ho argued in Eastern Court on Friday that Magistrate Daniel Tang Siu-hung had erred in the case of the 40-year-old TVB star, who was involved in an accident on Magazine Gap Road in the Mid-Levels on August 8, 2020.
Yeung, whose real name is Lam Ming-lok, had pleaded guilty last December to careless driving and illegal window tinting, but denied a charge of failing to provide a blood sample for an alcohol test without a reasonable excuse at Queen Mary Hospital.
In March, he was acquitted after trial on the third charge and ordered to be remanded in custody pending sentencing on the others.
But just as he was about to be taken away by prison officers, his then counsel Cheng Huan SC asked the magistrate to allow his client to reverse his guilty plea on the other two charges in an apparent attempt to secure his release.
Cheng said his team had “inadvertently misled [Yeung] into believing that he would not be sentenced to a term of imprisonment or remanded in custody for the offences”.
That explanation was accepted by the magistrate, who concluded that Yeung’s guilty plea was not unequivocal and agreed to reverse it, allowing the actor to remain out on bail.