In HKSAR v Lau Kam Ying ([2013] HKEC 1503, CFA) Company X transferred the title to land to indigenous villagers. The villagers executed declarations of trust to the effect that each of them held his section on trust for company X. This declaration was never registered. Company X was wound up. When the Government resumed the land, some of the villagers assigned their land to Company Y which had been set up to collect compensation on their behalf. They made false statutory declarations to the effect that the title deeds had been lost. These were then submitted to the Government as part of the process of claiming the compensation.
The leading players behind the scheme were convicted of conspiracy to defraud. They had falsely represented that company Y was a bona fide purchaser for valuable consideration and concealed the beneficial interest of company X. In this decision, the Court of Final Appeal rejected the defendants’ application for leave to appeal against the convictions.
The defendants argued, first, that the declarations were null and void as against company Y as a result of section 3(2) of the Land Registration Ordinance. This failed since sections 3 and 4 of the Land Registration Ordinance, ‘concern priorities between registered instruments but do not affect remedies which may be available whether in contract, tort or equity.’ (Tang P.J. at [19]). The second argument was that the declaration was unenforceable on the grounds of public policy. This would have failed anyway since company X would not need to plead an illegal act (Tinsley v Milligan) ([20]).
In any event, the conviction relied on the fact of the concealment not on whether company X had an indefeasible beneficial interest ([21]).
