Retired Hong Kong trainer Brian Kan has been sentenced to 14 weeks in jail for offering a $HK130,000 ($A16,923) bribe in a local election, officials said on Tuesday.
Kan, 74, a five-time Hong Kong Derby-winning trainer, is free on bail of $HK100,000 pending an appeal to the sentence which was handed down on Monday in a magistrates’ court, a court spokeswoman said.
“Elections are the cornerstone of social development in Hong Kong,” Magistrate Symon Wong reportedly said when sentencing Kan, who had presented character references from a former judge and a popular singer, among others.
“The court has the responsibility to ensure they are conducted in a clean and fair manner to uphold the confidence of the public,” he added according to The Standard newspaper.
Kan ran unsuccessfully in the March village election in Sheung Shui in the rural northern New Territories, close to the border with mainland China.
The court heard that prior to the poll, he left $HK130,000 in cash with a village representative in return for his “support”.
The representative handed over the money to anti-corruption authorities.
Kan reportedly went to Britain in his 20s and worked in a restaurant, while learning to train horses in his spare time.
He returned to Hong Kong in 1969 and launched his training career.
He trained 844 winners in 25 years, reports said.
AFP AAP TURF
