A 37-year-old man was fined $24,000 by the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts today (April 21) for violating the Prevention and Control of Disease (Disclosure of Information) Regulation (Cap. 599D).
The man was a truck driver and he had provided false information to authorised officers on August 12 and 13, 2021, about the whereabouts of a batch of imported fish which was found to have been contaminated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The man was charged with three counts of contravening sections 3(4) and 3(5) of the Regulation and was fined a total of $24,000 for the three charges today.
Under the Regulation, it is a criminal offence for any person to provide false or misleading information to authorised officers. Offenders face a maximum fine of $10,000 and imprisonment for six months.
​A spokesman for the Department of Health said that it is a grossly irresponsible act to conceal or provide false or misleading information to an authorised officer, as this may hinder the contact tracing process and pose a serious threat to public health. As of today, a total of seven persons have been convicted by the courts for breaching the Regulation. The spokesman reiterated that resolute actions will be taken against anyone who has breached the relevant regulations.
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