Chef at Hong Kong’s Four Seasons gets suspended sentence for filming upskirt video

A former restaurant chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong, who previously worked at the Michelin-starred flagship hotel in Tokyo, was given a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to secretly filming upskirt videos of women.

Japanese national Eisaku Hara, 50, lost his job at Tempura Uchitsu after the case was revealed to the public earlier this month, the Eastern Court heard on Monday.

Previously, the defendant admitted that he hid a camera in the side pocket of his backpack to photograph three women in the central store of the Don Don Donki retail chain on April 10, 2022.

Hara’s lawyer said her client was highly regarded by his employer but had lost his hard-earned reputation because of the criminal offence.

“His mistake has left his hard work over the past three decades in tatters,” she told Magistrate Tsang Chung-yu.

The lawyer said Hara suffered from depression due to being separated from his family in Japan during the Covid-19 pandemic and that serving a prison sentence would only worsen his mental illness.