Hong Kong court slams Airport Authority, Aecom over exploiting expert in third runway project

Rocky Cheung cleared of fraud-related charges after judge finds he inadvertently created false inspection records due to heavy workload

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The magistrate slammed Aecom for using the defendant to its advantage during the construction of the airport’s third runway. Photo: May Tse

Published: 9:18pm, 14 Oct 2024Updated: 12:28am, 15 Oct 2024

A magistrate has slammed Hong Kong’s Airport Authority and an engineering firm for exploiting an expert involved in a multibillion-dollar third runway project, acquitting him of fraud-related charges after finding he had inadvertently created false inspection records due to heavy workload.

Rocky Cheung Lok-on, 42, on Monday was cleared of 13 counts of using a document with intent to deceive, which arose from as many supervision reports containing bogus feedback about the quality of work at an artificial island near the airport between November 11 and December 21, 2020.

West Kowloon Court heard that Cheung, then a senior project engineer and geotechnical expert with the authority, had claimed that a land surveying procedure at the island on October 13, 2020, was satisfactory even though a tropical storm had forced the suspension of all construction work that day.

Further inquiries by the Buildings Department found the accused was either on leave or handling other job duties at the time he purportedly inspected the site on two other dates, respectively.

The defendant said in an interview with the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) that he had compiled the false records in a hurry upon learning the department would conduct a surprise inspection.

Magistrate Norton Pang Leung-ting said the authority had asked Cheung to take over a supervisor role at multinational consultancy Aecom, which was responsible for overseeing the construction of a fire station on the man-made island, due to a manpower shortage.