HKSAR v. Ng Wai Lun
Read the full judgment text of HCMA 951/2004 on BabelCite. This High Court CFI judgment was delivered on 5 January 2005 before Hon Gall J.
Criminal law – road traffic offence – failing to display trade plate – appeal – sufficiency of evidence – reasonable inference – conviction quashed. The appellant was convicted of failing to display a trade plate after a head-on collision. The magistrate accepted evidence that trade plates were attached when the vehicle left at 8 pm, but inferred that they were not displayed at the time of the accident at midnight, based on police not finding them 20 minutes later. The appellate court held that this inference was not the only reasonable one, given the unsecured scene, debris, and incomplete search. A doubt existed, so the appeal was allowed, conviction quashed, and sentence set aside.
Legal issues: Reasonableness of inference of guilt
Outcome: Appeal allowed; conviction quashed and sentence set aside.
|
HCMA951/2004 IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Appellate Jurisdiction) MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO.951 OF 2004 (ON APPEAL FROM KCS5197 OF 2004) ______________________ BETWEEN
______________________ Before : Hon Gall J in Court Date of Hearing : 5 January 2005 Date of Judgment : 5 January 2005 _______________ J U D G M E N T _______________ 1.The appellant was on 10 September 2004 convicted of failing to display a trade plate, i.e. failing to display a licence plate issued to the member of the motor vehicle trade to temporary license and insure a vehicle when it was being moved. He was on the same day fined the sum of $2,000. 2.The facts were that on 12 December 2003, at a few minutes past midnight, the appellant was driving a car north along Tai Mong Tsai Road and it appears from the sketch that he went on to the wrong side of the road and had a head-on collision with the car southbound on the same roadway. The driver of that car testified that he saw no trade plates at any time. The magistrate found his evidence to be inconsistent and in respect of the issue of the presence or absence of trade plates said : “… I gave his evidence in that regard little weight.” 3.Police arrived at the scene some 20 minutes after the accident. The first officer PW2 looked at the vehicle of the appellant and saw no trade plates attached to it and no trade plates inside the vehicle. He agreed that he was unsure if the scene had been disturbed before his attendance. He searched about six metres along the roadway each side of the accident and saw no plates. The skid marks prior to the accident were a far greater distance than six metres. He agreed that he could not see very far off the road on the verges, and onone side there was water and on the other side a steep rising incline. He did not see any trade plates but he agreed that there was debris from the car flung a considerable distance. 4.Evidence was given for the defence by the further of the appellant who owns a company selling motor cars. He said the car was driven from his premises. DW2 testified that when the car left the premises at about 8 p.m., the trade plates were fixed to the car. It was not clear as to how the trade plates were fixed to the car, but in his findings the magistrate refers to the fact that the rear plate was fixed to the spoiler at the top of the back of the car by an elastic band. The evidence of DW2 that the plates were on the car when it left the premises was accepted by the magistrate as the truth. 5.The magistrate was therefore left with the position that when the vehicle left the premises at 8 o’clock, it had trade plates attached. It was being taken to be considered for purchase by a purchaser at 11 o’clock at a carpark. After the accident some 20 minutes elapsed before the police arrived and the vehicles were not secured during that period and were open to other persons not connected with the parties tampering with them. He accepted that some parts of the vehicles had been flung from them and that no full search was made to ascertain whether the front and back plates were part of those pieces of the vehicle. He said this :
6.I do not agree that the inference drawn by the magistrate was the only reasonable inference. There was insufficient primary evidence upon which he could come to that conclusion. 7.In my view, there must have a doubt in respect of this conviction and the appeal will be allowed, the conviction will be quashed and the sentence set aside.
Ms Winsome Chan, SGC of Department of Justice, for the Respondent Mr Peter Chow, instructed by Messrs C.K. Mok & Co., for the Appellant |