The Court of Second Instance (TSI) has rejected a male teaching assistant’s (TA) appeal against being fired by his school after the Judiciary Police (PJ) discovered that he had been printing fake money and mining bitcoins on campus, a Court of Final Appeal (TUI) statement said yesterday.
According to the statement, on July 2, 2018 the school’s CCTV footage showed that the TA left school without permission at 2:38 p.m. and only returned at 4:30 p.m. The statement said the TA was marked “absent from work without authorisation” by the school, adding that on the next day, the TA was taken back to school by PJ officers as he was suspected of having printed bogus money on the school premises.
The statement said that the school’s principal was standing next to the TA when the officers found three suspicious 500-pataca notes and a pile of “special paper” used for making fake cash in an office desk drawer. The statement said that the TA admitted to the crime and said that he printed the fake pataca notes in the library.
Meanwhile, about a week later, school staff were helping the TA clear out his personal belongings and found a “bitcoin miner” connected to the school’s computer network. The statement stressed that the school denied owning the miner, pointing out that the school then found four other operating miners on campus.
According to yesterday’s statement, on July 4, 2018 the then Education and Youth Affairs Bureau director launched disciplinary procedures against the TA. However, the statement added that the same bureau on November 22, 2018 ordered the suspension of the disciplinary procedures. The government’s then secretary for social affairs and culture Alexis Tam Chon Weng had approved the suspension as the TA was already facing judicial procedures.
The statement pointed out that Tam’s successor, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U, ordered the resumption of the disciplinary procedures on February 24, 2020, stressing that in the same year the procedures resulted in the TA’s dismissal.
The statement said that the TA appealed the government’s decision to dismiss him.
The statement said that according to the Court of Second Instance, considering that the TA committed the crime of counterfeiting currency and used public resources in committing the crime, which disrupted society’s safety and stability and severely damaged the school’s reputation, the court has decided to reject his appeal as he was given “reasonable” punishment.
The statement did not disclose the name of the school.
