The Attorney General v. Ng Shing-tai and Another
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CAAR000013/1973 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG (APPELLATE JURISDICTION) APPLICATION FOR REVIEW NO. 13 OF 1973 -----------------
Coram: Briggs, C.J., Pickering & Cons, JJ. Date of Judgment: 16th July, 1973. ----------------- JUDGMENT ----------------- Briggs, C.J.: 1. This is an application made by the Attorney General to review a sentence passed in the Magistrates Court on the ground that it was manifestly inadequate. 2. Ng Shing-tai and Ng Muk-shing were charged with an offence against Section 38(1)(a) of the Immigration Ordinance that they aided and abetted TANG Cho and others to land in Hong Kong without the permission of an Immigration Officer. The facts are simple. 3. Inspector CHAN Chin-cheung was in charge of a patrol in a police launch in the vicinity of Sha Chau early in the morning of May 30th, 1973. The patrol sighted and stopped a shrimp trawler which was heading for Castle Peak Bay. On the shrimp trawler they found 26 persons. It transpired that Ng Shing-tai and Ng Muk-shing were bringing 24 illegal immigrants from Macau to Hong Kong. Both Ng Shing-tai and Ng Muk-shing pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court to the offence mentioned above and were sentenced to three months' imprisonment. The sentence was ordered to be suspended for twelve months. In addition, each of them had to pay $500 as costs. Ng Muk-shing had not been served with this application since he lives in Macau. To-day, only Ng Shing-tai appeared before us. Mr. Sceats, who appeared for the Attorney General referred to four cases of a similar nature, which have been brought before the court during the last twelve months. He pointed out the difficulty in tracing the activities of the persons who bring illegal immigrants to Hong Kong from Macau for money and he gave us figures to show the increase in the number of persons who are so brought in the last three years. In the year ending 31st March, 1971, Hong Kong sent back to Macau 579 illegal immigrants. In the year ending March 31st, 1973, there were 1,058 such persons. These were persons who had arrived in Hong Kong from Macau. In addition, in the year ending 31st March, 1971, 174 persons were intercepted before landing in Hong Kong and were sent back to Macau. There was a slightly smaller number of such persons sent back to Macau in the year ending March 31st, 1973. 4. The shrimp trawler, in this case, was not owned by either of the parties concerned and it has been confiscated. The 24 persons who were on board were returned to Macau without any proceedings being taken against them in Hong Kong. Mr. Sceats said that during the last twelve months there have been only four cases of offences of this nature which have resulted in convictions. In the first case, a sentence of fifteen months' imprisonment was imposed; in the second case the sentence was eight months' imprisonment - in addition, a boy aged 14 was convicted but discharged; in the third case two persons were sentenced to six months' imprisonment and on the 29th March, 1973, a man, aged 60, was found guilty of this offence and was given a sentence of eighteen months' imprisonment. This shows that the sentence which the magistrate imposed in the present case of three months' imprisonment to be suspended for twelve months was out of line with the usual run of cases brought under this section. 5. Ng Shing-tai told the court that he was not the head of the organization responsible for bringing persons from Macau to Hong Kong illegally. He was an employee only and the present circumstances were such that a sentence of immediate imprisonment would have serious effects on his family. 6. Taking this into consideration and also taking into consideration the fact that the conviction was dated the 31st May, 1973, we think that the magistrate's sentence was manifestly inadequate. We have no quarrel with the range of sentences given for this offence in the past and we think that the proper sentence in this case is one of six months' imprisonment. Therefore, we substitute a sentence of six months' imprisonment for the sentence passed by the trial magistrate. The sum of $500 which was ordered to be paid as costs is to be returned to Ng Shing-tai.
Representation: Sceats, S.C.C. for Applicant/A.G. Respondent (NG Shing-tai) in person. |