Hong Kong - Five people have been jailed for up to three years in a passport scam that was thought to be linked to a gang of people smugglers, a media report said Saturday. Two Chinese residents, Chen Kaiyan, 16, and He Wenyou, 23, from Fujian province were jailed for two and 30 months respectively for lying to immigration officers at Hong Kong International Airport, the South China Morning Post reported.
Three Hong Kong residents were sentenced for their role in the scam. Cheng Pak-cheong, 46, was jailed for three years for aiding the two Chinese, while Chan Kwok-keung, 39, and Li Yat-chung, 29, were sent to prison for 16 months for selling their own passports.
Chen and He told immigration officers they were flying to Thailand after checking-in for a Bangkok-bound flight. But after they went to the departures area, Cheng gave them boarding passes for a flight to Rome.
But the duo were stopped at the boarding gate by airline ground crew who found the names on the boarding passes were different from those on their Chinese passports.
Immigration officers later intercepted Cheng, who had been paid about 1,900 dollars to escort the pair to Rome. Police found Cheng had two Hong Kong passports, which allowed visa-free entry into Italy, that were to be given to Chen and He upon arrival at Rome.
Subsequent inquiries found that Chan and Li had sold their passports to a Hong Kong middleman who was still being hunted by immigration officers.
Wong Chung-yiu, head of the Immigration Department's anti-illegal migration agency, said the department thought it had smashed part of an international trafficking syndicate. He said there were 27 cases of people changing boarding passes last year.
Wong said 60 immigration officers had stepped up patrols and random checks at Hong Kong airport to hit human smuggling by targeting flights, especially those to Europe and Japan.
