Read the full judgment text of CACC 000055/2000 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 8 August 2000 before Wong JA, Keith JA and Yeung J.
Criminal law – sentencing – credit card fraud – counterfeit credit cards – starting point – guilty plea – appeal – reduction of sentence – HKSAR v POON CHO SHU [2000] HKCA – The applicant pleaded guilty to charges of using and possessing counterfeit credit cards and possessing another person's identity card, obtaining goods worth $10,000-$11,000. The Deputy Judge adopted a starting point of 4½ years for the false instrument charges, reduced to 3 years on plea, with a consecutive 8 months for the ID card charge, totaling 3 years 8 months. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the starting point was excessive, comparing the case to R v Chan Sui-to [1996] 2 HKCLR 128, and set the proper starting point at 3 years. With the guilty plea, sentences on the false instrument charges reduced to 2 years each concurrent, but consecutive to the 8 months, resulting in a total of 2 years 8 months. Appeal allowed.
Legal issues: Sentencing starting point for counterfeit credit card offences
Outcome: Appeal allowed; sentences on the five false instrument charges reduced from 3 years to 2 years each, to run concurrently but consecutively to the sentence on the identity card charge; overall sentence reduced from 3 years 8 months to 2 years 8 months.
Cited by 16 cases