A contractor has been jailed after the Court of First Instance dismissed his appeal against conviction of offering a free package tour to an owners' incorporation chairlady for obtaining $1.1 million in lift maintenance contracts for a Sha Tin housing estate.

Yu Po-leung, 55, former shareholder and director of Antonfield Engineering Company, was found guilty of one count of offering an advantage to an agent last November. He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and granted $20,000 bail, pending an appeal.

The judge rejected his argument that he, while offering the free package tour, did not realise the chairlady was an agent of the owners' incorporation.

The incorporation of Jubilee Garden called for a tender for lift maintenance contracts in late 1998. Antonfield, whose bid was not the lowest, was subsequently offered the contracts.

Between January 1 and February 4, 1999, Yu offered a payment of $39,880, being the tour costs, to incorporation chairlady Liu Huan-yee.

The bribes were for Liu to award about $1.1 million in lift maintenance contracts to Antonfield.