HKSAR v. Chan Man Yeung

DCCC987/2010

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 987 OF 2010

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to four separate charges of burglary, contrary to section 11(1)(b) and (4) of the Theft Ordinance, Cap. 210, Laws of Hong Kong, being Charges 2, 4, 5 and 6 on the indictment.

2.The brief facts which you have admitted show that in the evening of 5 July 2010 you were seen by officers who were conducting anti-burglary patrol in Causeway Bay entering premises situated in Gloucester Road which were under renovation at the time.  You were seen by them coming out of these premises shortly afterwards, having in your possession the tools mentioned in Charge 6.

3.Under caution, you admitted having stolen those items from Flat B on the 2nd Floor of the premises.  In a subsequent video recorded interview, you admitted to the police that you had also committed the burglaries which are the subject of Charges 2, 4 and 5 in May and June of this year.

4.All of these burglaries involved burglaries of premises under renovation and in each case you stole items such as electric drills, grinders, electric screwdrivers and the like.

5.The total value of the property stolen by you in relation to all four charges comes to $34,180.  None of the tools, save the tools that were found on you upon your arrest, have been recovered.  It is admitted by you that you had sold them.

6.You are now 38 years of age and quite simply have an appalling criminal record.  You have 14 previous convictions which involve a total of 35 charges, 18 of which are for burglary.  The only mitigation is your plea of guilty and I will give you credit for that.

7.As all of these premises were unoccupied at the time, due to renovation, I am prepared to adopt the lower starting point of 2½ years’ imprisonment in respect of each of the offences, i.e., Charges 2, 4, 5 and 6.  However, due to the record of your previous convictions, which I consider to be an aggravating feature, I will increase this starting point to one of 3 years’ imprisonment in respect of each charge.

8.Due to your plea of guilty, I will reduce the sentence on each charge by one-third, coming to 2 years’ imprisonment on each of these charges.

9.Due to the question of totality of sentence, I order six months of the period of 2 years in respect of Charges 4, 5 and 6 to run consecutively with the sentence on Charge 2 and consecutively with each other, arriving at a total sentence of 3½ years’ imprisonment.