A local contractor has been jailed for hiring nine Mainland visitors to work in a laundry company.

Chan Po-kuen, 39, pleaded guilty at Sha Tin Magistracy to nine counts of hiring a person not lawfully employable. He was jailed nine months on each charge, the sentences to run concurrently.

Immigration officers took over the case from Police and labour inspectors who conducted a joint raid on a Kwun Tong laundry company on September 20. Nine Mainland visitors were found working there.

Chan admitted he had contracted the laundry jobs and hired the visitors for $150 a day each.

The Mainlanders were each charged with one count of breaching their conditions of stay and jailed for seven weeks.