At 2019 hours, so 8 o’clock or so in the evening when it is dark, on 23 November 2019, you and two other males went into Yee Souk Gong Watch Jewellery Company in Shop B1 within the Yat Sun Building at 5 Yan Sun Street in Yuen Long in order to steal. You were all wearing dark clothes, baseball caps and masks, and the shop had just a single member of staff working within it at that time of night but, luckily, he was working behind some metal railings.
You entered the shop first, armed with a hammer, and you smashed the glass cabinets in front of you. If that was not frightening enough, one of your colleagues had a very large knife and he pushed it through the metal railings, swearing at the member of staff and demanding he come out from behind the metal railings to open up the door to give you access to the stock. He, very sensibly, did not do so and called the police, which caused you and your friends to flee in a vehicle you had stolen to help you carry out your robbery. The vehicle had false plates upon it. As we have heard, it was eventually abandoned close by.
Luckily, your attempt did not cause anything but mental harm to the victim and considerable damage but no loss of goods. But that was sheer luck because your intent was to cause harm and to steal.
You were eventually traced through your DNA which was found upon masks that you had left inside of the abandoned vehicle.
You are now 26 years of age. You were only 23 years old when you committed this offence. You were born in the mainland and you came to Hong Kong in 1999. You received a formal education up to Form 2. You are single and you have worked in, and as Mr Lee has just mentioned, you could work in the construction industry. There will always be work for you; lawful employment in the construction industry.
You have been offending since you were a teenager. Despite being given the chance of probation, rehabilitation and DATC, you are working your way up the criminal offending ladder and you are working your way towards, and indeed this is, serious offending.
I am told you committed this offence simply to earn quick money despite the fact that you can earn $15,000 a month in construction. To be frank, I despair that you and your generation seem to think that this sort of behaviour is in any way acceptable.
In HKSAR v Mo Kwong Sang [1981] HKLR 610 - and notice it is 1981, it is a very old case - the Court of Appeal suggested very many years ago that where, in the course of a robbery, a knife is brandished, the appropriate starting point for sentence is one of 5 years. But this was not just a knife, was it, which was used by admittedly some other member of your gang? You also had a weapon, a hammer, and you used it on the glass cabinets immediately in front of that victim. That would have been frightening in itself. That was violent behaviour.
You knew your co-defendant had brought along a very large knife and you watched him put it through the rails, the security bars of the shop, and you watched him wave it towards the victim who did not have very far to move in the area that he had.
It does not matter at all that you were not the one doing the brandishing. You stood by and watched your colleague do it with no suggestion of concern and you have shown no remorse for the victims of your offending. This was clearly a joint enterprise. You each played your part and you each take responsibility for your own acts and for the acts of your accomplices. You are all equally guilty.
I have no doubt that this robbery was premeditated and well planned, including the theft of the vehicle and the swapping of the number plates. It was only the courage of the victim and his presence of mind which resulted in your crime being aborted. That premeditation and planning is an aggravating factor for which I consider an enhancement of 1 year is appropriate.
But there is, as you have heard this morning, another aggravating factor which I have already alluded to and that is your record. There are no similar offences of robbery but you had been dealt with for an offence of violence and one of dishonesty, albeit of course whilst you were very young.
Of more significance is the timing of these offences, especially the most recent ones because you appear to be intent on crimes of ever increasing seriousness, including the outstanding matter, which is yet to be progressed, of fraud. These will have a significant personal consequence if you continue to offend and to consume drugs. This must be nipped in the bud.
You must be made to realise that the more you offend, the greater the punishment will be. I intend to increase your sentence by a further year to mark the pattern of and escalation in your offending, in an attempt to deter you from considering further offending when you are eventually released from prison. You will therefore receive a sentence of 7 years.
You cannot receive a full one-third discount for your early plea as you originally indicated that you would plead not guilty to the offence of robbery and therefore this matter was committed to the High Court for trial. However, you had changed your plea prior to the trial being listed, and in accordance with HKSAR v Ngo Van Nam, CACC 418/2014, you are entitled to a discount from that sentence of 25 per cent. You will therefore go to prison for 5 years and 3 months.