Lam San v. The Queen
|
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG (APPELLATE JURISDICTION) CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 894 OF 1972 -----------------
----------------- Coram: Pickering, J. Date: 12th February, 1973 ----------------------------- JUDGMENT ----------------------------- 1. The appellant in this case was convicted of being a suspected person found loitering and also of going equipped for stealing. He was sentenced to three months imprisonment on the first charge and to six months consecutive on the second charge. 2. The facts were that he was observed laying hands on the doors of three cars and, when arrested, he had with him a screwdriver which he admitted he intended to use in opening car doors. I saw nothing inappropriate in the individual sentences or in the fact that he received a higher sentence on the second charge than the maximum permissible upon the first for, as it seems to me, the second charge was, in the circumstances of this case, the substantive charge. The two charges having originated out of the same incident, however, it was incorrect to order the sentences should be consecutive, and the appeal against sentence succeeds to the extent that the two terms of three months and six months imprisonment respectively, will run concurrently and not consecutively. Appellant in person. Duckett, S.C.C. for Respondent. |