Hong Kong bookstore owner fined HK$32,000 for using shop as unregistered school

A Hong Kong independent bookstore owner has been fined HK$32,000 (US$4,085) for holding a Spanish class in his shop after a court ruled the course took place at an unregistered school.Pong Yat-ming, 52, was convicted on Friday of violating the Education Ordinance by organising a Spanish course in April last year at Book Punch, a bookstore he founded in Sham Shui Po in 2020.Kowloon City Court earlier heard Pong’s defence at his trial, where he testified that he held the basic language course to promote Spanish culture as an “interest class”.He denied a total of five summary offences levelled against him and his company, Active Experiential Learning Company Limited.The bookstore owner said he “genuinely believed” that even though the course was educational and included teaching material about Spanish grammar and language usage, it still did not fall under the definition of a school under the Education Ordinance.Pong pointed out that the then acting secretary for education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung told the Legislative Council in 2017, that “courses which simply aim at developing a hobby or an interest” did not require school registration.He said the Spanish course – which was a two-month, once-a-week programme – did not include any form of tests. Students also do not receive certificates upon completing the course.Pong explained that he himself was an avid Spanish learner and he merely wanted to introduce the language to the public in a “stress-free” learning environment.According to prosecutors, inspectors from the Education Bureau arrived at the bookstore on April 23 last year and observed that a foreigner was teaching a group of 12 people Spanish words on the screen.A court has rejected Pong Yat-ming’s defence that a Spanish course held at his shop, Book Punch, was merely an ‘interest class’. Photo: Fiona ChowPong was later charged with breaching education rules by permitting Antonio Baro Montane, who was not a registered teacher, to teach in a school that was also not provisionally registered.Further ReadingMagistrate Arthur Lam Hei-wei ruled that the prosecution had proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt.“Without hesitation, I refuse to believe [Pong’s] testimony,” he said.The magistrate said the school registration exemption was only applicable for those non-educational courses, such as skill development.However, the evidence showed Montane’s class was obviously educational, as it involved grammar and culture learning, reciting vocabularies, and other activities.In mitigation, barrister Lawrence Lau Wai-chung pleaded with the court to consider the extenuating circumstance that Pong had merely “misled” himself by believing the Spanish course was an interest class.Lau stressed that the bookstore was a community space and that Pong ran it without a profit motive. Instead, he had to pay for the operational expenses from his own savings.Considering Pong’s financial situation, Magistrate Lam ordered him to pay the fine for the five summons within a month.