Two men who pleaded guilty to using forged and stolen backstage passes in a bid to get up close and personal with the rich and famous at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards have been handed suspended jail sentences.
The defendants Hu Fangxu, 36, and Tao Wenbao, 29 were convicted of fraud and using a false instrument during their appearance at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court last month.
Using the faked credentials, the pair pretended to be staff hired by the Hong Kong Film Awards — where, fittingly, the counterfeiter caper Project Gutenberg nabbed the award for best film.
Hu tried to get in using a staff pass belonging to a female employee — complete with the female employee’s photo — and claimed in court that he bought it outside the venue for 500RMB (US$75).
Tao, meanwhile, tried to get in by posing as a photographer hired by the organizers using a forged staff pass. Tao’s cover was blown when organisers noticed the font on his pass didn’t match the official ones and that they had only hired four photographers to cover the event, not five.
HK01 reports that Hu was sentenced to two months in jail yesterday, with the sentence suspended for a year, while Tao was given three months in jail, suspended for 18 months.
The outlet reports that in a mitigating statement, the defense maintained that Hu bought the pass from someone outside the awards ceremony venue at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. A background report on Hu noted that he doesn’t have a criminal record, and wasn’t aware that buying identification documents was a crime in Hong Kong since such conduct is common in the mainland.
The defense said that Tao, for his part, was under a lot of personal financial difficulties after borrowing a large sum from the bank, and was hoping to sneak into the award ceremony to solicit clients in order to repay his debts.
Principal Magistrate Bernadette Woo had already expressed incredulity about the Hu buying his pass outside the gala, asking at trial, “Why would someone out of nowhere be selling staff passes outside the venue?” She also challenged the defense’s assertion that Tao’s crime had not been premeditating, as he had clearly forged his own pass, complete with his photo.
Nonetheless, she decided to hand the pair suspended sentences.
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