Read the full judgment text of DCCC 1038/2023 on BabelCite. This 區域法院 judgment was delivered on 26 May 2025 before 區域法院暫委法官蘇文隆.
刑事法 – 以欺騙手段逃避法律責任 – 盜竊罪條例第18B(1)(b)條 – 「空頭支票」騙取鑽石 – 被告否認控罪後始認罪 – 量刑基準 – 違反誠信案件量刑指引的參考適用 – 認罪扣減 – 判刑起點25個月 – 認罪扣減五分之一 – 整體監期20個月 – 控罪一16個月、控罪二10個月、控罪三6個月，其中控罪二及控罪三各兩個月與控罪一16個月分期執行。The defendant, a 49-year-old designer with no prior convictions suffering from bipolar disorder and hypertension, issued three bounced cheques over three months to obtain three batches of diamonds from jewellery merchants, defrauding them of goods worth over HK$600,000. He was charged with three counts of evasion of liability by deception contrary to section 18B(1)(b) of the Theft Ordinance (Cap 210). He initially denied the charges and only pleaded guilty after a trial was arranged, qualifying only for a one-fifth discount. The Court held that, although the Court of Appeal had not issued sentencing guidelines for this offence, the breach-of-trust sentencing benchmark in HKSAR v Ng Kwok-wing [2008] 4 HKLRD 1017 (2 to 3 years for amounts between HK$250,000 and HK$1,000,000) could be adopted by analogy. The court adopted a starting point of 25 months, applied a one-fifth guilty plea discount, and imposed a total of 20 months' imprisonment, distributed as 16 months on Count 1, 10 months on Count 2 (with 2 months consecutive to Count 1), and 6 months on Count 3 (with 2 months consecutive to Count 1).
Legal issues: Sentencing guideline applicable to evasion of liability by deception · Discount for guilty plea
Outcome: Defendant convicted on his own plea to three counts of evasion of liability by deception and sentenced to a total of 20 months' imprisonment.