Chan Ming v. The Queen
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CACC000759/1974 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG (APPELLATE JURISDICTION) CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 759 OF 1974 -----------------
----------------- Coram: Huggins, J. Date of Judgment: 25th September 1974. ----------------- JUDGMENT ----------------- 1. The Appellant and another man were charged before the magistrate with theft and unlawful possession. The Appellant pleaded Guilty and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment on the first charge and three months' on the second, both sentences to run concurrently. 2. In the early hours of the morning police officers on patrol saw the two men pushing a wooden cart with a metal plate upon it. The cart had been stolen from one place and the other man in fact admitted that the metal plate had been taken from another. 3. The Appellant had two previous convictions, one for unlawful possession in 1973 and one for theft in April of 1974, and on each occasion he was placed on probation. The second offence was committed before the end of the first period of probation and the present offences were committed before the end of the second period of probation. The Probation Officer invited the learned magistrate to deal with this latter breach of probation - that is to say to pass sentence for the thefts committed earlier this year - but for some reason this was not done. Unfortunately counsel for the Crown is unable to tell me the circumstances of that offence and, that being so, I do not think I can properly deal with it in this Court. 4. This was a case where the magistrate would have liked to send the Appellant to a training centre in respect of the present offences, but the prison authorities were unwilling to accept him in a training centre because he was suffering from venereal disease. In all the circumstances it is impossible for me to say that the sentences were wrong. The appeal must be dismissed and I must leave the prosecution to take the Appellant before a magistrate to deal with the breach of probation. 25th September 1974. Representation: |