In 12 April 2023, the Eastern Court of Hong Kong sentenced a civil servant to 140 hours of community service due to having attempted at entering workplace, in 2022, by using an imitation of the official government Covid-19 risk exposure app.
The man argued that he was unaware that the app he was using was indeed fake and was sincerely convinced that he was using the official app. The court, however, noted that all the characteristics of the official app had been widely publicized by the government and that it was therefore impossible not to know about it and confuse it with a fake app.
However, in delivering the sentence, the court also noticed that the man, as a public servant, had greatly contributed to the society and that the violation could be considered an isolated incident. Therefore, the final sentence was limited to community service.
