Civil servant Clive Holgate was jailed because the judge did not understand the world of finance, the High Court heard yesterday.
Defence lawyer Gerard McCoy described the District Court decision as 'an embarrassing and astounding matter'. 'The judge was overwhelmed with financial evidence,' he said. 'He did not understand it. Some people do not have a mathematical bent.' Voluminous evidence from accounting expert Ian Robinson was dismissed in two 'crisp' paragraphs, Mr McCoy said. Judge Peter Surman's judgment 'never dealt with the defence'.
Last November, Holgate, 53, was jailed for two years after Judge Surman convicted him of maintaining a standard of living beyond his legitimate means. He had denied the charge.
From January 1989 to July 1993, the Buildings and Lands Department surveyor's income outstripped his known earnings by more than $1.5 million. But Mr McCoy said Mr Robinson had traced 98.3 per cent of the money back to Holgate's missing wife.
Pauline Sham Po-ling left her Sai Kung home on January 24, 1992, and had not been seen since. The District Court heard she was being hounded by loan sharks before her disappearance.
The former Wan Chai hostess barely knew her husband. Her nights were consumed with high-stakes mahjong, her days with telephone calls from men. She also had a lover, a 70-year-old 'sugar daddy' who gave her $1 million because he believed he was the father of her child, the court heard.
'The defendant's failure was to keep his wife under control,' Mr McCoy said. 'This woman had her finger in the pie all over town.' When Sham disappeared, she took with her Holgate's only chance of a fair hearing, the lawyer argued.
He said Judge Surman should have granted lawyer Alexander King's request that the trial be halted.
The appeal continues before Chief Justice Sir Ti Liang Yang, Mr Justice Noel Power and Mr Justice Barry Mortimer.
The Attorney-General has called for a review of the surveyor's sentence, scheduled to begin as soon as the appeal ends.
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