Read the full judgment text of CACC 000143/1992 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 24 February 1993 before Silke VP, Power VP, Macdougall JA.
Criminal law – robbery – taxi robbery – sentencing – appeal against sentence – Vietnamese refugee – whether starting point of 8 years too high – whether one-third discount for guilty plea excessive. The applicant, a long-term Vietnamese refugee resident in an open camp with his family, pleaded guilty to robbery arising from the hold-up of a taxi driver in Kweilin Street, Kowloon, in which accomplices seized the driver by the hair and held a sharp object at his throat while a wallet containing HK$550 was taken. The applicant was apprehended after a chase and his fingerprint was later found in the taxi. The High Court (Deputy Judge Jones) imposed a starting point of 8 years with a one-third discount, yielding a sentence of 5 years and 4 months. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the prior guidance of the court, applicable at the time of the offence, supported a starting point of 6 years for a taxi robbery involving a measure of violence. It further held that a one-third discount for guilty plea was far too generous where the applicant was caught red-handed and the evidence was overwhelming, and that his status as a long-term refugee with a family did not justify such a large reduction. The Court of Appeal announced that henceforth sentences of 7 years after a contested trial would be justified for offences similar to that in the present case. Treating the application as the hearing of the appeal, the court allowed the appeal, set aside the sentence of 5 years 4 months, and substituted a sentence of 5 years' imprisonment.
Legal issues: Starting point for sentence in taxi robbery involving use of a sharp weapon · Discount for guilty plea where evidence is overwhelming
Outcome: Application for leave to appeal against sentence treated as the hearing of the appeal and allowed; sentence of 5 years and 4 months set aside and substituted with 5 years' imprisonment.
Cited by 4 cases