The Eastern Magistrates' Courts on Tuesday morning had the defendant Li Junping, who arrived in Hong Kong last year with a one-way permit, appear over an accusation of offering an advantage to a public servant before Principal Magistrate Ivy Chui Yee-mei.

According to the court, Li filed a placement application for her son to Hennessy Road Government Primary School (Causeway Bay) last June as her son failed to get a pleasing arrangement in the central allocation results for Primary One admission issued by the education authority.

The school afterwards arranged two interviews for Li's son, but the court was told that the boy failed after the first round.

Li, therefore, put a note with her son's name and HK$20,000 in cash in an envelope to the school's principal, who immediately called the police after receiving the offer.

Today in court, Magistrate Chui said she understood the defendant, as a mother, was to fight interest for her son, but slammed Li's behaviour as a serious offence which would undermine a clean society and fair competition.

The defendant was sentenced to four months in jail, and her son didn't get the seat for the school in the end.