HKSAR v. Ho Chun Kit

DCCC843/2011

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 843 OF 2011

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to one offence of using a false instrument and to one offence of possessing a false instrument, contrary to sections 73 and 75(1) respectively of the Crimes Ordinance, Cap.200.

2.You admitted the facts and I convicted you.

3.Briefly, the facts are as follows.  At around 3.54 pm on 6 March last you went to Studio A, Nos. 38-40 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, and purchased a laptop computer called a MacBook Air for $9,888.  You presented a Citibank Visa card in the name of Luk Chi-ho to the member of staff, PW1.  PW1 was suspicious of its authenticity.  You asked PW1 to return the card to you but he refused to do so, whereupon you fled and you were pursued by PW1 and another member of staff.  You were caught at the shop entrance and the police were called.

4.A police Officer, PW3, arrived, examined the card, which was of poor quality, and arrested you.  Upon search, another Citibank Visa card in the name of Luk Chi-ho was found in your right front trousers pocket.  It too was of poor quality, and you were arrested again.

5.Under caution, you claimed to have picked up the two cards outside Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station that day.

6.A subsequent forensic examination showed both cards to be forged.

7.You admitted to 18 previous convictions on 10 occasions, many of which related to dishonesty.  However, the last three were convictions after the commission of the present offence, so are in fact subsequent convictions.  You were sentenced to prison for those offences and your earliest date of release I note to be 16 November of this year.  You are also technically in breach of a suspended sentence of 2 months imposed for an offence of driving whilst disqualified.

8.On your behalf Mr Leung entered mitigation.  He began by saying the only real mitigation in this case is your plea of guilty to both offences.  Realistically, he conceded that these offences are serious.  He asked me not to activate the suspended sentence given the totally different nature of the offences involved and to follow the example set by the magistrate.

9.He went on to tell me that you are 31 years of age and you live with your elderly father, who unfortunately is suffering from cancer.  He stressed that there was no international element to these offences, there were only two cards, and there was no loss to the shop.  He invited me to view these as being at the lower end of the scale of seriousness.  He read to me a letter that you had written wherein you express your remorse.

10.I turn now to the sentence.

11.I do accept these offences are at the very bottom of the scale of seriousness.  I note that there was no loss to the shop, it was not a case of either effective or attempted multi-purchases, there is no international element in this case, and it involves only two cards.  I also note that at the time that you were stopped you appear not to have struggled. However, against that I do note that you have an appalling criminal record for one of 31. 

12.Having said that, I do note you have served your sentences for each of those offences.  I also take into account that you are presently serving a sentence of imprisonment and your earliest date of release is 16 November of this year.

13.There are two offences here but it seems to me to be one course of conduct.  I intend to deal with the two offences by way of concurrent sentences.

14.On each charge I take as a starting point 33 months’ imprisonment.  This will be reduced to 22 months for your plea of guilty.  You will therefore go to prison for 22 months on each, to be served concurrently.  This will be run consecutively with your existing sentence. 

15.In respect of the breach of suspended sentence, I intend to take no action.  That will remain in force.  These are totally disparate offences.

16.So to sum the matter up, you will begin to serve your sentence of 22 months beginning on 16 November.