Hong Kong’s Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB) has rejected a challenge by activist Eddie Tse and upheld an order suspending his licence for three years, following his fraud conviction in July.
The SWRB said in a letter to Tse, which was seen by HKFP, that the board had decided to maintain its September 4 order that suspended his social worker licence for three years, starting from this Friday.
Tse, who received the letter on Monday, was charged with defrauding the government to collect welfare benefits from an elderly subsidy scheme earlier this year and sentenced to 120 hours of community service in July after pleading guilty.
Under new rules enacted last year, the SWRB can suspend social workers’ licences once they are convicted of an offence instead of only when they apply for their annual licence renewal, which was the case under the old system.
The new mechanism was part of a sweeping reform to the city’s social workers licensing system, a move the government said was needed to “safeguard national security.”
The SWRB said in its letter that it had considered Tse’s written submission dated October 2, in which the activist appealed against the suspension order on the grounds that he committed the offence out of “carelessness” and did not harbour any fraudulent intention.
But Tse’s submission had contradicted his own guilty plea in court and showed that he had no remorse, the SWRB said.
As the suspension order has been upheld, Tse must return his social worker registration certificate to the SWRB by November 7, according to the letter.
He will lose access to an online system for registered social workers and will not be allowed to hold any position relating to social work.
Tse told HKFP on Tuesday that he was not surprised by the SWRB’s decision, saying that it demonstrated the board did not consider his situation when issuing the suspension order.
“The main reason why I filed a written submission was to question the basis on which the SWRB reached its decision to impose a penalty,” Tse said. “[The SWRB] lacked a guideline for setting penalties; lacked sufficient reasoning; did not provide an appeal mechanism; and did not offer an objective assessment.”
Tse’s fraud case came to light after he applied for legal aid in August last year for his judicial review – a legal tool to challenge government policies – of the authorities’ controversial plan to build the San Tin Technopole, a tech hub near the city’s border with mainland China.
In court hearings related to the fraud charge, his lawyer said Tse had been “reckless,” averaging his earnings over a year to estimate his monthly income and believing that he fell below the income threshold to qualify for the subsidy.
When informing Tse of his de-registration in September, the board wrote that as an “experienced social worker,” he should have been familiar with social welfare systems and their regulations.
“Being convicted of such an offence was deemed by the board to have seriously damaged the professional reputation of social workers,” the letter continued.
