Wong Tak-ming v. The Queen

CACC000373/1978

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Coram: Briggs, C.J., Huggins & Pickering, JJ.A.

Date of Judgment: 29th May, 1978.

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JUDGMENT

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Pickering, J.A.:

1. This is an appeal against concurrent sentences of four years' imprisonment for robbery and two months' imprisonment for being carried in a conveyance without authority. The robbery took place as long ago as September 1975 when the Appellant and another man entered a supermarket, produced knives and threatened the staff thereafter removing money from the cash registers. During the course of the robbery the Appellant's accomplice slashed a female cashier who tried to move away.

2. The Appellant was not arrested until towards the end of March of this year when he admitted the offences and pleaded guilty. We are unable to say that a sentence of four years' imprisonment for this robbery was out of the ordinary but this Court was impressed somewhat with the fact that in the two and a half years' intervening between the offence and his arrest the Appellant has kept out of trouble, has applied himself to a trade serving two years' apprenticeship as a barber and has subsequently been employed as a fully-fledged barber. He told us that in the intervening years he had become well aware that the way to succeed is to work hard and that he had reformed - a statement which appears to be borne out by his behaviour since the dates of these offences. We were impressed with his demeanour and apparent sincerity and, more as a gesture of encouragement than because the sentence was improper, allowed the application and reduced the sentence of four years' imprisonment on the charge of robbery to one of three years while leaving undisturbed the concurrent sentence of two months' imprisonment for being carried in a conveyance without authority.

Representation:

Appellant in person.

M.M. Sinclair for Crown/Respondent.