HKSAR v. Lam Yuk Lung

DCCC 782 & 785/2021 (Consolidated)

[2024] HKDC 1605

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NOS 782 & 785 OF 2021

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REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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1.D2 was convicted after trial of one charge of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence, contrary to section 25(1)  and (3)  of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (money laundering)  [Charge (7)].

2.He was sentenced to 240 hours of community service order on 6 October 2023.

3.Probation officer subsequently submitted a progress report of D2 dated 22 July 2024 recommended the discharge of the community service order on the ground that D2 displayed unsatisfactory performance during the 9-months of his supervision and regarded him no longer a suitable subject to carry out unpaid work under the community service order.  A Supplementary Information to Progress Report dated 27 August 2024 was further submitted by the probation officer in which it was revealed that as of 27 August 2024, D2 had completed 184 hours and 16 minutes of community service.  It was also revealed that as a result of D2 being sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment on 21 August 2024 in WKCC  2694/2023, D2 could no longer perform any more community service.

4.Mr Wong, who appeared on behalf of D2, acknowledged that there were short-comings on the part of D2 insofar as his performance of the community service was concerned.  The defence urged this court to consider extending the period of the said community service order so as to allow D2 to complete the remaining 55 hours and 44 minutes of community service.

5.In the event that this court is of the view of discharging the Community Service Order and proceed with the re-sentencing of D2, Mr Wong urged this court to consider the number of hours of community service already completed by D2.

6.Mr Wong also submitted that apart from D2 currently serving the said 12 weeks imprisonment in WKCC 2694/2023, he had also been sentenced to 4½ months imprisonment in FLCC 1415/2024 for the offence of attempt exporting prescribed articles without licence.  The defence therefore urged this court to consider the principle of totality.

7.Having considered the said reports submitted by the probation officer, I am satisfied that the community service order made on 6 October 2023 should be discharged and D2 be re-sentenced.

8.Having considered all the circumstances in respect of Charge (7), the monetary amount involved, the duration of the money laundering transactions and D2’s role in so far as those transactions were concerned, I adopt 12 months’ imprisonment as the basic starting point for Charge (7).

9.In view of D2’s completion of 77% (184 hours)  of the community service, I will reduce the sentence by 9 months which resulted in the sentence for Charges (7)  to be one of 3 months’ imprisonment.

10.I also bear in mind the principles enunciated in HKSAR v Leung Ting Fung & another [2015]1 HKC 290 in which the Court of Appeal said, at paragraph 36 of that judgment:

“36. … The judge dealing with an offender who is serving a sentence of imprisonment for offences occurring around the time of other offences for which the judge must now sentence the offender must step back and take a global view of the total sentence in light of the whole of the criminal conduct. In HKSAR v Lee Ming Yin, CACC 332/2010; unreported, 26 January 2011, this Court said:

‘The principle is long settled that a sentencing judge, when dealing with an offender who has been sentenced to imprisonment by another court for another offence, must have regard to the totality of all the terms of imprisonment to which the offender would become subject: See, for example, R v Ng Chun Keung [1993] 2 HKC 171 at 173.

In R v Tong Hoi Fung [1998] 1 HKLR 601, this court said that, in determining an appropriate sentence in light of the totality principle, the matter should be approached as if the two cases were being heard together.’”

11.Having considered all the circumstances and the totality principle, I find it appropriate that 1 month of the sentence term in the present case should run concurrently with the sentence in FLCC  1415/2024.

Conclusion

12.The Community Service Order made on 6 October 2023 for D2 be discharged.

13.D2 is sentenced to 3 months’ imprisonment for Charge (7), of which 1 month is to run concurrently with the sentence term in FLCC  1415/2024.