After paying from HK$25,000 ($3,212) to HK38,000 ($4,882), four mainland citizens two men and two women were recently sentenced to 12 to 18 months in prison for trying to enter Hong Kong for illegal employment by faking marriage with Hong Kong residents and lying to immigration officials.

A district magistrate in Shatin, New Territories, found all four defendants guilty of conspiracy to defraud the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and providing false information to immigration officials. One of the men, Fu Yongyi, 22, was sentenced to 18 months for faking marriage to a Hong Kong woman so that he could stay for up to 90 days every time he visited his "wife".

The other three defendants were also sentenced to different terms for conspiracy to defraud the HKSAR government.

(Wen Wei Po)