The contractor behind renovation work at the site of Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades had previously breached safety requirements for construction projects on multiple occasions.

Prestige Construction & Engineering Co Limited was convicted of two safety offences in a Mid-Levels project in November 2023, according to Labour Department records seen by the South China Morning Post.

Despite the offences, the firm would subsequently take on renovation work in 2024 at Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po, which had been ravaged by fire for more than 24 hours since Wednesday.

The Labour Department only provides previous offence records of companies for the past two years on its website.

The government revealed on Thursday night that Prestige had another 11 ongoing projects with privately owned residential estates. The Buildings Department had inspected these projects earlier in the day and planned to take follow-up actions.

The fire started at one of the eight residential blocks at Wang Fuk Court and spread to another six, killing 83 residents with many more missing.

It spread fast as buildings were wrapped in scaffolding mesh and windows were covered with foam boards, authorities said.

In a reply to the Post’s queries earlier in the day, the department said it had issued warnings to Prestige to step up fire prevention measures as recently as 20 November.

It said authorities had inspected Wang Fuk Court 16 times and launched three prosecutions for safety violations between July 2024 and earlier this month.

The disclosure of these repeated interventions came as the Independent Commission Against Corruption set up a task force to launch a full investigation into possible corruption in the Tai Po project, following police arrests of three key figures linked to the works.

On Thursday morning, police arrested Hau Wa-kin and Ho Kin-yip, both directors of the main contractor Prestige, along with its authorised signatory, Steve Wong Chung-kee, on suspicion of manslaughter.

The department conviction records reveal that Prestige was a repeat offender with a history of safety crimes.

The contractor was convicted in November 2023 for failing to ensure workmen erected, altered or dismantled scaffolding under supervision at Ning Yeung Terrace in Mid-Levels West, resulting in a fine of HK$3,000 (AUS$590).

Prestige faced a second conviction on the same day regarding the failure to ensure safe access to and egress from the workplace at the same Mid-Levels estate, incurring an additional fine of HK$4,000.

Despite these convictions appearing on the public record, the progress report of the building renovation project submitted by the project consultant, Will Power Architects Company, and reviewed and signed by directors Wong Hap-yin and Ng Yeuk, explicitly certified that the builder had no litigation records with owners, nor convictions by the Labour Department.

Further scrutiny of the contractor’s regulatory history revealed that the Registered Contractors’ Disciplinary Board had ordered Prestige in August 2023 to be prohibited from certifying or carrying out any minor works for four months and fined HK$50,000.

Ip Tak-wing, the authorised signatory for the contractor at the time, was reprimanded and fined HK$5,000 by the board for misconduct or negligence.

The pair was also ordered to pay HK$84,000 in total to cover the costs incurred by the board and the Buildings Department for conducting the inquiry.

The disciplinary case stemmed from minor works carried out by Prestige at Ning Yeung Terrace and Parkway Court in Mid-Levels.

A former shareholder of Prestige, Chao Tak-kwong, was jailed for 18 months in 2009 for bribing Housing Society staff to secure renovation contracts for three private buildings in Yuen Long.

The Post visited the registered office of Prestige at the Laurels Industrial Centre in San Po Kong following the arrests, only to find the metal shutters pulled down during regular business hours with no doorbell visible.

The Post also visited 14 Hing Yin Street, the registered address of Wong Hap-yin, a director and shareholder of Will Power Architects Company in To Kwa Wan, Kowloon. However, the address was found to be inaccurate.

According to documents on the Wang Fuk Estate renovation website, Prestige won the HK$330 million bid out of 57 bidders for the Wang Fuk Court project in 2023.

The owner’s corporation of the housing estate approved in 2021 the appointment of Will Power Architects Company Limited as a consultant to the large-scale renovation.

But in the same year, Wang Fuk Court residents had attempted to oust the management of the owner’s corporation, which appointed property manager ISS EastPoint Properties Limited, over allegations of opaque tendering and a governance monopoly spanning two decades, according to social media posts and media reports.

Will Power Architects said on Thursday that it was fully cooperating with police, the Fire Services Department and the Housing Department’s Independent Checking Unit by providing building plans, data and professional advice.

It pledged to help with the estate’s restoration but declined to comment further at this stage to preserve the investigation’s integrity.

Will Power prepared the report that assessed bidders for the project and gave its highest B rating to Prestige before the firm was selected.

Renovation work started last year in three stages, with the last one scheduled to end in the second quarter of next year.

Republished from the _South China Morning Post_, 28 November, 2025