FDH imprisoned for working in her employer’s spa in Wan Chai

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Shatin Law Courts Building

A Filipino domestic worker was jailed after immigration officers caught her working in her employer’s massage spa in Wan Chai.

Defendant Mary Jean S.L. admitted her guilt on June 8 to one charge of breach of condition of stay at the Shatin Magistrates Courts.

“I plead guilty….I admit it was my mistake,” Mary Jean told Acting Shatin
Principal Magistrate Wong Sze-lai.

The prosecutor said the Filipina was caught during an undercover operation in May at her employer’s spa on Johnston Road in Wan Chai.

Immigration officers arrested her after she provided a 45-minute massage to an undercover immigration agent for $170 before the spa was raided. Mary Jean said she worked at the spa on the orders of her employer.

Because of this and her guilty plea, Judge Wong reduced her sentence from six weeks to four weeks imprisonment.

The Immigration Department had been cracking down on illegal workers in Hong Kong in recent months. From June 4 to 7, Immigration agents arrested 14 alleged illegal workers and five suspected employers of illegal workers.

The suspects were nabbed after Immigration agents raided 23 locations, including a beach, a commercial building, a factory, food stalls, a game centre, residential buildings and restaurants.

“The illegal workers comprised nine men and five women, aged 24 to 58. Among them, two men were holders of recognisance forms, which prohibit them from taking any employment,” a government statement said.

“Three men and five women were suspected of using and being in possession of forged Hong Kong identity cards,” it added.

The Immigration agents also arrested three men and two women, aged 26 to 44, who were suspected of employing the illegal workers.

“Any person who contravenes a condition of stay in force in respect of him shall be guilty of an offence. Also, visitors are not allowed to take employment in Hong Kong, whether paid or unpaid, without the permission of the Director of Immigration,” an Immigration Department spokesman said.