HKSAR v. Ngai Shue Lau Alias Cheng Chun Lung
Read the full judgment text of CACC 356/1998 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 22 September 1998.
1. The Applicant pleaded guilty to one count of burglary and one count of being in Hong Kong without the authority of the Director of Immigration.
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CACC000356/1998 IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION COURT OF APPEAL 1998, No. 356
------------------------- Coram: Hon. Power, V.-P., Mayo and Stuart-Moore, JJ.A. in Court Date of hearing: 22 September 1998 Date of delivery of judgment: 22 September 1998 ---------------------- J U D G M E N T ---------------------- Mayo, J.A. (giving the judgment of the Court): 1. The Applicant pleaded guilty to one count of burglary and one count of being in Hong Kong without the authority of the Director of Immigration. 2. The occupant of the premises the subject of the burglary awoke in the early hours of the 28th March 1998 and found a person going through the drawers in the sitting room of his home. He managed to subdue the man and the police were alerted. On their arrival it was ascertained that the man who it transpired was the Applicant was an illegal immigrant. 3. The Sentencing Judge, Judge Davies sentenced him to a total of 3 years 1 month's imprisonment. It is against this sentence that the Applicant seeks leave to appeal. 4. The Judge adopted as his starting point 3 years' imprisonment for the burglary and he gave the Applicant a 25% discount for his plea thus reducing the sentence to 27 months. He adopted the usual 15 months as a starting point for the immigration offence and having regard to the totality principle reduced this to 10 months thus arriving at the total sentence of 37 months. 5. The Judge reduced the discount on the burglary charge on account of the fact that the Applicant was caught red handed. This was not a sufficient reason to fail to reduce the sentence by the usual 1/3 discount. Even if a Defendant is caught red handed he is still all other things being equal entitled to a 1/3 discount. 6. However the reduction made on the basis of totality was a generous one. Indeed it could be said that in the normal course of events the usual sentence of 15 months' imprisonment should have been ordered to run consecutively. The consequence of this is that the sentence which was finally imposed was in conformity with sentences normally imposed for offences of this nature. 7. This application is accordingly dismissed.
Representation: Mr. Francis Lo, S.A.D.P.P. (Ag.) (D.P.P.) for Respondent Ngai Shue-lau alias Cheng Chun-lung, Applicant in person |