Tang Chai v. The Queen
Read the full judgment text of CACC 414/1972 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 16 June 1972.
1. In this case the accused, Tang Chai pleaded guilty to one offence of theft and was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. He appeals against that sentence on account of its severity. At the time of his trial he asked that three other thefts of a similar nature be taken into consideration.
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CACC000414/1972 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 414 OF 1972 -----------------
----------------- Coram: Briggs, J. in Court Date of Judgment: 16 June 1972 ----------------- JUDGMENT ----------------- 1. In this case the accused, Tang Chai pleaded guilty to one offence of theft and was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. He appeals against that sentence on account of its severity. At the time of his trial he asked that three other thefts of a similar nature be taken into consideration. 2. In each case including that to which he pleaded guilty the appellant had stolen something from a parked vehicle. In this particular case it was a transistor radio worth $100. The appellant admitted his offence and the radio has been recovered. 3. The appellant has a long criminal record dating back to 1954. It includes many convictions in connexion with dangerous drugs and there are at least 8 convictions for offences similar to the present. 4. The Magistrate would appear to have exceeded the jurisdiction conferred upon him under Section 92 of the Magistrates Ordinance in imposing a sentence of 30 months for one act of theft. In any event it is my view that notwithstanding the record of the appellant 30 months is a manifestly excessive sentence. I therefore reduced the sentence to one of 18 months imprisonment which I ordered to be served as from the date of the conviction.
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