HKSAR v. Yu King Ming and Another

CACC313/2007

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 313 OF 2007

(ON APPEAL FROM DCCC 783 OF 2006)

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BETWEEN

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Before : Hon Stuart-Moore VP, McMahon & Wright JJ in Court

Date of Hearing : 20 January 2009

Date of Filing of Submission : 11 February 2009

Date of Handing Down of Ruling on Costs : 26 February 2009

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R U L I N G   O N   C O S T S

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McMahon J (giving the ruling of the Court) :

1.On 20 January 2009 we dismissed both applications for leave to appeal in this matter and reserved our reasons, which were subsequently handed down on 5 February.

2.The respondent had sought costs.  We allowed Mr Ross for the applicants to make written submissions resisting the respondent’s application.  We received those submissions on 11 February 2009 and have now considered them.

3.In our view the grounds advanced in both applications for leave to appeal were without merit.  The evidence against the applicants was overwhelming and their convictions, on any realistic appraisal of that evidence, were inevitable.  We do not consider that the grounds of appeal, based as they were upon technical arguments relating to the admissibility of evidence which in our view could not succeed, and upon criticisms of the judge’s use of language, had anything approaching substance.

4.The respondent’s application for costs is allowed.  We order that those costs be taxed, if not agreed.

Mr Michael Delaney, Counsel on fiat for the Department of Justice, for the Respondent

Mr Phillip Ross, instructed by Messrs Reimer & Partners, for the 1^st and 2^nd Applicants