High Court judge helps FDH charged with 14-year-old offense

“Do we really need to be prosecuting this?”

Deputy High Court Judge Audrey Campbell-Moffat SC asked this question this morning before denying bail to a former domestic worker so that she could a better chance of getting out of jail at the soonest possible time.

Campbell-Moffat denied the bail application of Joan C. Calso, who worked in Hong Kong as a domestic worker from 1994 to 2002, after convincing the Filipino woman that it would actually be in her favor.

“If I grant you bail, you might spend (an additional) month or two in prison…You’d better to stay put because you’d be released earlier,” the judge told Calso.

Campbell-Moffat explained that, if she were granted bail, the magistrate who is expected to sentence Calso tomorrow morning might give her a longer sentence.

Calso replied: “If that is the best thing, then I’m not asking for bail.”

Calso was arrested on January 4 after arriving in Hong Kong with her mother and children for a vacation after immigration officials noticed that the birth date in her passport was different from the birth date stated in the passport she used when she worked here as a domestic worker.

“I now work in Spain. I came here with my mother, my son, and my daughter for a holiday,” Calso tearfully told the court.

”My employer had called the consulate and said that I have to get back to work (by March),” she said, adding that her employer knew about her arrest.

The government had filed six cases against Calso for using a false travel document and making a false representation to an immigration officer.

She had used the passport with the different birth year when she entered Hong Kong on three occasions previously: on Sept. 17, 1994; on March 22, 2002; and on May 7, 2002.

“Your difficulty is this: It is very likely that the magistrate will sentence you for something you did a long time ago,” Judge Campbell-Moffat said.

“Courts take (Calso’s) offense very seriously. They have to show the public you cannot be allowed to do this,” she added.

Calso claimed that it was another person who was responsible for the erroneous entry in her passport and that she had had it corrected in her new passport which she used when she arrived here with her family on January 4.

“I don’t why we’re prosecuting for an offense (14 years ago)?….I’m trying to do justice. I’m concerned about the lady here,” Judge Campbell-Moffat told the lawyer representing the government at the very start of the bail hearing.

But the lawyer noted that the birth year in Calso’s old passport might have been different to make it appear that she was older “by six years” so that she could work in Hong Kong.

“It was not an honest mistake as it seems,” the lawyer said.

But after learning that Calso might lose her job in Spain, the judge told her to inform the magistrate in Shatin tomorrow about it.

“That is something you must tell your lawyer to tell the magistrate…That you will lose your job and your employment. You must make sure that is said to the magistrate,” the judge said.

She suggested that Calso get a letter from her employer in Spain to support her case at the Shatin Magistrates’ Courts.

“It could make a difference and get you back in Spain to get your job…If your lawyer does a super job, you’re going to be released tomorrow,” Judge Campbell-Moffat said.

Encouraged by the judge’s apparent concern, Calso asked if the High Court judge could write a letter to the magistrate but the judge pointed out that she is not allowed to do that.

The judge told Calso to give a copy of a High Court ruling that her lawyer could use to argue for a lighter sentence.

“Tell your duty lawyer I said you have to give it to her and try to persuade the magistrate. Tell the magistrate about your job (in Spain),” Campbell-Moffat said.

Calso is set to appear at the Shatin Magistrates Courts tomorrow morning for a pre-trial review but she might plead guilty to get a lighter sentence.

“Best of luck, Ms. Calso. Do not do that (using travel documents with differing information) again here in Hong Kong,” the judge added.