Chan Wan Lung v. The Queen

CACC000694/1976

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Coram: Pickering, J.A.

Date of Judgment: 13th July 1976.

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JUDGMENT

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1. As long ago as November 1972, the appellant then aged 18, was to appear for trial upon charges of

2. He did not appear on the date set for trial with the result that his bail was estreated and a warrant was issued for his arrest. That warrant was not executed until this year although he had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment for robbery in Kowloon District Court in 1974 and was in fact in prison.

3. When he appeared in court on 18th June 1976 he pleaded guilty to the above charges and, the learned magistrate considering that since the appellant was already in prison, the only appropriate sentences would be of further imprisonment, sentenced the appellant to four months' imprisonment on the A charge and to two months' imprisonment on each of the B and C charges. The two terms of two months were to run concurrently but consecutively to the term of four months' imprisonment and the total term of six months' imprisonment was to be consecutive to the four years' imprisonment now being served.

4. Upon his appeal on the A B and C charges the appellant asked me to substitute fines for the sentences of imprisonment. Since it appears virtually certain that if I adopt such a course the fine will be paid by somebody else, and since that is not the object of fining, I am unable to comply with his request. There is one respect, however, in which the appeal has some merit. The car which he took without authority belonged in fact to his father: that is not to say that it was not taken without authority, it was. But such behaviour is susceptible of degree and in such circumstances as these it is improbable in the extreme that there was, for example, any intention of stealing the vehicle or even abandoning it. As it appears to me, a sentence of four months' imprisonment for taking his father's car without authority was unduly heavy and I would allow the appeal on the A charge to the extent that the sentence of four months be set aside and substituted by one of two months' imprisonment.

5. The learned magistrate also imposed certain periods of disqualification from possessing or obtaining a driving licence but the appellant did not wish to raise any point upon the appeal in regard to those periods of disqualification which will stand.

Representation:

Appellant in person.

Duffy, C.C., for respondent.