Former Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung’s appeal unlikely to succeed, says judge who rejected bail
Former Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung Ka-sing’s bail application was rejected because an appeal against his conviction for money-laundering had little chance of success, a Court of Appeal judge said.
Jailed former Birmingham City Football Club owner Carson Yeung Ka-sing's bail application was rejected because an appeal against his conviction for money laundering had little chance of success, a Court of Appeal judge said on Friday.
An appeal hearing into Yeung's conviction and six-year jail term for laundering HK$721 million is set for March 11.
Mr Justice Michael Lunn, vice-president of the Court of Appeal, rejected Yeung's bail application on December 16 and explained in his written judgment, handed down yesterday, that the former hairdresser was unlikely to win his appeal.
"Although the various grounds of appeal advanced in support of the application … are arguable, in my judgment the applicant failed to establish to the requisite standard a prima facie likelihood of success in his application," Lunn said.
In the bail application, Yeung was represented by veteran criminal barrister Gary Plowman SC.
Last February, Yeung was sentenced to six years in prison on five charges of laundering HK$721 million using five bank accounts at Wing Lung Bank and HSBC between 2001 and 2007.
During the trial, the court heard that from 2001, various parties made deposits in the accounts, many for no apparent reason. Some were made by securities firms and a Macau casino while others were made by unknown parties. Some 440 deposits, totalling more than HK$97 million, were made in cash.
The court heard that Yeung once reported earning nothing for five years, but his income later shot up by a factor of 300 in only seven years. Accounting experts investigated tens of millions of dollars in cheques deposited by Macau casino bosses.
Yeung remains the biggest shareholder in Birmingham City's Hong Kong-listed parent company.
