Hong Kong professors fined as one of them lets peer drive wife’s car on campus without licence
- Chinese University academics fined HK$3,000 each after their car was found cruising erratically. One of them was coaching the other
- Lawyers say when clients were studying abroad, they were allowed to drive without permits in schools, and had assumed this was so for Hong Kong
Two Hong Kong university professors were fined HK$3,000 (US$380) each and one of them was suspended from getting behind the wheel for nine months on Friday after he let a colleague drive his wife’s new car on campus without a licence.
The Sha Tin Court heard that Chinese University professor Yu Jiu-kang, 50, was coaching Zhang Lei, 35, a research assistant professor, on how to drive, when their car was found cruising unsteadily outside the Shaw College building on December 15 last year.
Zhang, who did not have a licence, was in the driver’s seat. Yu was next to him at the front, the court heard.
Niece of top Hong Kong judge arrested again, this time for driving while disqualified and not having any insurance
Yu pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of permitting driving without a licence and another of permitting driving without third-party insurance. Zhang admitted to one count of driving without a licence and another of driving without third-party insurance.
They were sentenced soon after their guilty plea on Friday. Zhang was also fined the same amount and barred from getting a licence in the coming nine months.
The court heard that on that morning, a security guard from the university in Sha Tin spotted their car moving in an erratic manner on the road.
Upon questioning by the guard, the academics revealed they were both university staff. Zhang also confessed that he did not have a licence, leading to the case being reported to police.
A subsequent police investigation found that the car belonged to Yu’s wife, who was overseas at the time.
Zhang, a Mandarin-speaking German national, also admitted to officers he did not have a driving licence, while Yu, from Taiwan, said he was aware of it.
Their lawyers said the two were allowed to drive on private roads when they studied overseas. They had mistakenly believed they could do the same in Hong Kong.
The university’s website shows that Yu obtained his bachelor’s degree at the National Taiwan University before getting his doctorate in philosophy at Harvard University in the United States. Zhang completed his undergraduate studies at the China University of Mining and Technology on the mainland before obtaining his PhD at the Universitat Duisburg-Essen in Germany.
In sentencing, Acting Principal Magistrate Wong Sze-lai took into account that the offence occurred on a Saturday when the road was not busy.
The university said it would not comment on the case.
Additional reporting by Rachel Leung
