Chan Fu and Another v. The Queen
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CACC001156/1977
----------------- Coram: Briggs, C.J., Huggins and Pickering, JJ.A. Date of Judgment: 23rd May 1978. ----------------- JUDGMENT ----------------- Huggins, J.A.: 1. Both Appellants applied for leave to appeal against their sentences of twelve years' imprisonment for this raid on a Securicor van. The 2nd Appellant, without notifying either the Director of Legal Aid or his counsel, filed notice of abandonment and they were not aware of what he had done until this morning. 2. No doubt it was a bad case: firearms were used and shots exchanged with the police and guards. The 1st Appellant was armed with a knife. Mr. Stevenson has referred to Ng Tat-chor v Reg. 1977 H.K.L.R. 66 where this court said that a proper sentence for a robbery in which a revolver is used is a sentence of at least eight years' imprisonment, but he submits that the circumstances of that case, in which sentences totalling fifteen years' imprisonment for what are said to have been more serious robberies and accompanying shootings were altered to thirteen years, were so much more heinous that the present sentences are out of line. Mr. Polson accepts that the sentences were at the top end of the scale but contends that they were not manifestly excessive. We have discussed the matter at some length and have come to the conclusion that we ought to allow the appeal of the 1st Appellant and substitute a sentence of ten years' imprisonment. 3. The application of the 2nd Appellant stood dismissed upon his filing notice of abandonment, but the court thinks that his sentence also was unnecessarily severe and that the judge was right to give him the same sentence as the 1st Appellant. In the special circumstances that he abandoned his application without the benefit of professional advice, justice requires that we give him leave to renew his application and that we likewise reduce his sentence to ten years' imprisonment. 23rd May 1978. Representation: |