HKSAR v. Yan Zhendong
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DCCC835/2012 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION CRIMINAL CASE NO. 835 OF 2012 ----------------------
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--------------------- Reasons for Sentence --------------------- 1.Yes, Yan Zhendong, you have been convicted on your own pleas of one charge of remaining in Hong Kong without the authority of the Director of Immigration after having landed here unlawfully and four charges of burglary. You are a resident of the mainland but have spent much of the past 19 years in prison in Hong Kong. You were last released from prison in February 2011 and were deported back to the mainland. 2.In April this year, you yet again re-entered Hong Kong by boat unlawfully and remained here without the permission of the Director of Immigration. On 9 July this year, in the early morning, police officers discovered you camping in a tent on the hillside of Ha Che Tsuen in Pat Heung. You attempted to escape with a rucksack that had been stolen in a burglary that is the subject of the 2nd charge. Inside that rucksack and in the vicinity of the tent where you had been camping, the police found items that had been stolen by you in the course of four burglaries since your arrival in Hong Kong. 3.The burglaries were all committed by you in village houses in various locations in the New Territories. In each case, money and other valuables referred to in the Charges 2 to 5 were stolen by you. What makes these burglaries particularly serious is that they were all committed at night while the residents were at home asleep. It is fortunate that the residents in three of the four burglaries did not realise they had been burgled until they woke up the following morning. 4.The same cannot be said for the burglary in the 5th charge during which the 19-year-old daughter of the family went into the kitchen of her home at about 3.30 am and found you there. This must have been a terrifying experience for her. She rushed to her parents’ bedroom to inform them, and in the meantime you escaped. 5.Burglaries of people’s homes are particularly serious. They are not simply crimes against the property of those who live there. They are a violation of the security and privacy of the residents. They frequently leave people with an enduring sense of insecurity. 6.You have admitted that you entered the houses of the victims on each occasion save for the burglary in the 2nd charge where you admit that you acted as a lookout while your accomplice entered the house. You are a man with a record of repeatedly entering Hong Kong illegally and committing offences while you are here. 7.I am satisfied that each burglary warrants a starting point of 3 years’ imprisonment. I have listened to all that Mr Yau has said on your behalf and I take into account the letter you have written to the court. I hope that on this occasion you genuinely intend to turn over a new leaf. However, the only real mitigation in your case are your pleas of guilty, for which you are entitled to the usual discount of one-third. The sentence I pass on each of the burglary charges is therefore one of 2 years’ imprisonment. 8.In my view, the appropriate overall starting point on the four counts of burglary would have been 4 and a half years’ imprisonment and that the appropriate overall starting point after plea on those charges is 3 years’ imprisonment. 9.I sentence you on Charge 2 to 2 years’ imprisonment. On Charge 3, I sentence you to 2 years’ imprisonment, 4 months of which are to run consecutively to the sentence on Charge 2. On Charge 4, I sentence you to 2 years’ imprisonment, 4 months of which are to run consecutively to the sentences on Charges 2 and 3. On Charge 5, I sentence you to 2 years’ imprisonment, 4 months to run consecutively to the sentences on Charges 2, 3 and 4. 10.Bearing in mind that this is the ninth occasion you have committed the offence of unlawful remaining, I sentence you to 24 months’ imprisonment on that charge, that is Charge 1, to run consecutively to the sentences on Charges 2, 3, 4 and 5. The total sentence I therefore pass on you today is 5 years’ imprisonment.
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