HKSAR v. Nguyen Thi Phin

HCMA 1189/2007

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO. 1189 OF 2007

(ON APPEAL FROM TMCC 3622/2007)

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BETWEEN

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Before : Hon Wright J in Court

Date of Hearing : 12 February 2008

Date of Judgment : 12 February 2008

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J U D G M E N T

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1.The appellant, a 37-year-old Vietnamese female, appeals sentences of 18 months imprisonment on each of two charges preferred under the Immigration Ordinance, Cap. 115 namely breach of a deportation order and remaining in Hong Kong without the authority of the Director of Immigration having landed here unlawfully.  Six months of the latter sentence was ordered to be served consecutively to the former, resulting in a total sentence of 24 months imprisonment.

2.The deportation order was made on the 30 August 2005.  On 29 November 2007 she was intercepted by a police officer.  Under caution she acknowledged that she was prohibited from being in Hong Kong and explained that she had sneaked into Hong Kong in search of employment two days before her apprehension because of poverty.

3.In amplification of what she told the police officer, in mitigation the appellant related that she was married with two children aged 12 and 15 years: her husband suffers from cancer and is hospitalised: one child has had heart problems from birth. These both are long standing problems of which the appellant was fully aware when she re-offended on this occasion.

4.The magistrate took those factors into account as well as the fact that the appellant has two previous convictions for breach of condition of stay and one for using a forged Hong Kong identity card as well as two further convictions, one for breach of deportation order and one for unlawfully remaining.  The last two offences occurred in March 2006, the deportation order then breached being that breached again on this occasion.

5.The individual sentences and the aggregate sentence are all entirely appropriate.  The appeal is dismissed.

Appellant in person

Peggy LO, Government Counsel of the Department of Justice, for the Respondent.