A former Hong Kong primary school principal has been jailed for more than four years for leaking exam questions to a private tutorial centre run by his mistress and concealing his financial interest in the company.

The District Court on Monday took Henry Kwok Chiu-kwan to task for abusing the trust placed in him as head of the government-subsidised Tak Sun School, saying he had effectively encouraged students to cheat at the expense of its reputation and the public’s confidence in the integrity of the examination system.

The court held that the 52-year-old defendant deliberately and persistently committed the crimes for monetary gain, making his case more serious than the high-profile convictions of former government officials who failed to declare their conflicts of interest with business moguls.

Kwok, who said he was now divorced, was slapped with four years and three months on a count of misconduct in public office and a conspiracy charge to commit the same offence.

His mistress, 49-year-old Pang Wing-han, received three years for the same conspiracy offence.