HKSAR v. Concha, Marianne Duran

HCMA 758/2015

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO 758 OF 2015

(ON APPEAL FROM TMCC 3349/2015)

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J U D G M E N T

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1.The appellant pleaded guilty to one charge of theft and was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment by Principal Magistrate (Ag) Ms Merinda Chow. She lodged an appeal against the sentence and appeared before me today. When I asked her what her grounds of appeal are, she said that she had none.

2.The appellant was a domestic helper of the victim and during her time of employment, the victim found that of her jewelry that she had kept in a locked metal box, five pieces of them were missing.  So she reported the matter to the police and the police found that four pieces of the missing jewelry had been pawned by the appellant.  The appellant surrendered to the police and under caution admitted that she has stolen the jewelry and pawned them and she has sent the money home to the Philippines.  The appellant had a clear record in Hong Kong.

3.The learned magistrate after considering all the circumstances considered that this was a serious offence because the appellant had committed a breach of trust and so she adopted the starting point of 9 months and reduced it to 6 months because of the appellant’s plea and also because the appellant surrendered to the police, the learned magistrate further reduced the sentence by one month, therefore sending the appellant to prison for 5 months. The total value of the jewelry was about HK$40,000.00 and I cannot see any grounds of appeal in this case, the sentence was an appropriate one in the circumstances, so having considered all that, I consider that the appeal should be dismissed.

Mr Jones Tsui SPP, of the Department of Justice, for the respondent

The appellant appeared in person