Offering and accepting an advantage both constituting an offence

Peter was a dealing director of a brokerage company.   Due to the favourable performance in the local property market, the Hang Seng Index was driven up and many of his clients placed orders to buy blue-chip stocks.   In order to deal with the clients’ orders expeditiously, Peter decided to direct a portion of the business to an external broker.

Without  taking  the  service  quality  into  consideration,  Peter  offered  the business to his golfing partner, David.  In fact, David charged a much higher brokerage rate than other brokers.   One day, in a prestigious country club, David thanked Peter for giving him the business.   He told Peter that he was now on the executive committee of the country club and was able to secure for Peter one of the highly sought after memberships.   David even implied that if Peter continued to provide him with business in the future, Peter would have more advantages.   In response, Peter accepted the offer gratefully.