A Correctional Services Department officer has been jailed for two and a half years for accepting loans and a $10,000 bribe for smuggling unauthorised articles for an inmate.

So Lap-chung, 31, was also fined $1,300 and ordered to pay a restitution of $10,000 to the Government.

District Court Judge To Kwai-fung said it is a serious offence for a prison officer to introduce unauthorised articles for bribes which could adversely affect the order of the prison, and endanger effective management of it.

So was found guilty of eight offences - six counts of accepting an advantage, one of conspiracy to carry unauthorised articles out of prison, and one of conspiracy to introduce unauthorised articles.

Between April and November last year, the officer accepted $1,900 in loans, and a gift worth $1,000 from a woman, whose boyfriend was serving time at Stanley Prison. In August last year, he accepted $10,000 in cash from the woman as a reward for bringing a pager into the prison for her boyfriend.

The court also heard that on two separate occasions in July and August last year, the woman asked the officer to bring 20 photographs into the prison for her boyfriend. In November, he carried out of the prison a bag containing the photographs, and returned them to the woman. One month later, at the request of the woman, the officer brought the prisoner a pair of spectacles as a birthday gift.