HKSAR v. Yim Chuen

CACC 203/2005

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 203 OF 2005

(ON APPEAL FROM DCCC NO. 50 OF 2005)

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BETWEEN

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Before : Hon Stock JA in Court

Dates of Hearing : 15 December 2005

Date of Judgment : 15 December 2005

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J U D G M E N T

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Hon Stock JA:

1.The application for leave to appeal against conviction is refused.

2.In relation to sentence however, there is an error by the judge in his calculation of the totality to which error the court’s attention has very properly been drawn by Ms Vivien Chan.  The judge has said that the total sentence is five years nine months’ imprisonment, when that does not tally with the orders he made.  The orders he made result in a totality of five years six months’ imprisonment.  In relation to that erroneous totality, he has made an order that four years six months’ imprisonment shall run consecutively to the sentence of twenty three months’ imprisonment imposed in December 2004 for an offence of possession of dangerous drugs and assault on a police officer; making an overall total of six years five months’ imprisonment.

3.There needs at least to be a correction to the computation of five years nine months’ imprisonment and, once that is done, a consideration of the effect, if any, of that correction on the total of six years five months’ imprisonment.  I must stress, so that the applicant well understands it, that in my granting leave to appeal, there is no implication that the overall total of six years five months’ imprisonment will be changed; it is merely that as a result of the judge’s error to which I have referred, the matter needs to be examined.

4.For these reasons alone, leave to appeal against sentence is granted.

Applicant, YIM Chuen, in person

Ms Vivien Chan, GC of the Department of Justice for Respondent