The Queen v. Yu Lup-wai
Read the full judgment text of HCMA 262/1984 on BabelCite. This High Court CFI judgment.
1. This is appeal against sentence, the appeal against conviction having been abandoned. The facts of the case as found in the magistrate were that a Japanese tourist had his attention distracted or was put off guard while walking along the street by a taxi which mounted the pavement; he therefore came to conclusion that the appellant was a ting in concert with that taxi driver and therefore this was a combine operation and was serious. The tourist said that the appellant was about to pass the
|
HCMA000262/1984 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG (Appellate Jurisdiction) Magistracy Criminal Appeal No. 262 of 1984 ____ BETWEEN
_____ Coram: Hon. Penlington, J. in Court Date of hearing: 24th May 1984 Date of Judgment: 24th May 1984 ___________ JUDGMENT ___________ 1. This is appeal against sentence, the appeal against conviction having been abandoned. The facts of the case as found in the magistrate were that a Japanese tourist had his attention distracted or was put off guard while walking along the street by a taxi which mounted the pavement; he therefore came to conclusion that the appellant was a ting in concert with that taxi driver and therefore this was a combine operation and was serious. The tourist said that the appellant was about to pass the wallet to another person and that was clear evidence which the magistrate was quite entitled to accept and therefore at least two people involved. However there was no evidence that in fact the taxi was involved in this operation, there were clearly grounds of suspicion. The magistrate has also taken into account that this was pickpocketing of a overseas tourist who he was likely to be carrying a substantial amount of money. I think this is something which the court could take into account and it is very much in the public interest that picking of the pockets of the overseas tourists should be strongly discouraged. I think the Court can take into account that Japanese tourist unfortunately often do carry cash with them. He also look into account that the appellant had a bad record in that he has a conviction of pickpocketing, the last one in 1965, and three previous more recent convictions for loitering. It has been submitted by Mr. Huggins for the appellant that there was no evidence of these loitering offences were associated with pickpocketing. Nevertheless there were three of them and the appellant has previous record of pick pocketing. The magistrate certainly was entitled to take into account the three offences of loitering but they should not be equated with attempted theft. Nevertheless these offences were on the record and the magistrate was entitled to take into account. My attention has been drawn to the case of CHAN Ki-sai No. 236 of 1983 where Yang J. increased a sentence from three months to 9 months and said that tarriff for the usual type of pick pocketing in a public place is 9 months. 2. At the hearing of this appeal a medical certificate was produced, dated the same day as he was convicted, to the effect that the appellant's wife will give birth in November. This was not before the magistrate. 3. The appellant's 2 previous convictions for pick-pocketing were when he was aged 14 and 17. He is now 37. 4. I think the facts of this case and the accused record would call for a sentence of 12 - 15 months. Purely as an act of mercy and in no way as a precedent I will allow the appeal to the extent of reducing the sentence to 9 months so as to allow the appellant's release at about the time of the birth of his child.
Representation: Adrian Huggins instructed by Messrs Raymond Tang & Co. for Appellant James O'Mahony Counsel for the Crown |