City health inspector guilty of extortion in bar case


A fired City of Toronto health inspector has been found guilty of trying to extort $1,400 from a couple who owned a bar in the city's northwest.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Gary Trotter read out his judgment today as Kerry Wong sat beside defence lawyer Dan Kirby.

Wong, 44, who was fired by the city after he was charged, pleaded not guilty to two counts of extortion for allegedly trying to shake down the couple, who owned Weston Sports Bar and Cafe.

Yanhui Lu testified that Wong told her and her husband, Hong Hai Kang, that for $1,400 he had a friend downtown who could make $2,500 in food safety tickets he had issued them in July 2007 disappear from the system.

But Wong said he only pretended to facilitate the payment to bolster a fake story, which was the husband’s idea as a way to save their marriage.

Trotter rejected this explanation as making no sense.