Chinese man jailed for bogus marriage to Hong Kong woman

Feb 21, 2007, 8:55 GMT

Hong Kong - A Chinese man was jailed Wednesday for going through a bogus marriage to a Hong Kong woman to enable him to work in the wealthy former British colony.

Zhou Renping, 44, paid 50,000 yuan (6,450 US dollars) to marry a Hong Kong woman last year and was arrested at the border when he arrived in the territory on January 28, claiming he was visiting her.

At a hearing in Hong Kong's Shatin court Wednesday, Zhou pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and making false representations to immigration officers. He was jailed for 15 months.

His conviction followed a series of recent cases in which men from mainland China have been arrested after paying to marry Hong Kong women for residency rights.

In early February, a 21-year-old man who paid more than 5,000 US dollars to a middleman to arrange such a bogus marriage was jailed for 18 months.

In January, a migrant Chinese worker was jailed for 30 months after paying nearly 4,000 US dollars for a bogus marriage to allow him to work in Hong Kong.

After Wednesday's hearing, an immigration department spokesman said the agency was 'concerned with non-Hong Kong residents obtaining the right to stay in Hong Kong by means of bogus marriages.'

'A special task force has been set up to gather intelligence through various avenues, and a thorough investigation will be conducted once evidence comes to light,' he said. 'If there is enough evidence, the department will prosecute the offenders.'

The maximum jail term for a bogus marriage is 14 years in Hong Kong, which was a British colony for 156 years before reverting to Chinese rule in 1997.

The city is currently also taking action to stop pregnant women sneaking across the border from China to Hong Kong to give birth so their children would qualify for residency.