HKSAR v. Yip Yun Fai

DCCC958/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 958 OF 2012

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of burglary, contrary to section 11(1)(b) and (4) of the Theft Ordinance.

2.You admitted that on the 18th day of July this year, you entered as a trespasser a flat in Mei Foo Sun Chuen and stole therein 100 pieces of clothing.  The occupant of the flat was a lady who was your former boss.  You had been working for her five years previously.

3.On the day in question, you knew that she was out of town.  You used a key which you had copied to enter her flat with the intention of stealing her clothing.  The clothing was mostly, if not all, women’s undergarments.  The value of them as estimated by the victim was about $10,000.  You were captured on the building’s CCTV.

4.You have come to court and pleaded guilty from the outset to this offence.  In mitigation, your solicitor, Mr Edmond Yeung, has mitigated on the basis that you stole the items belonging to the victim as you were obsessed by her and you wanted a so-called part of her.  On the last occasion, I found these facts rather unusual as after you stole these items, you kept the items not in your flat but in a staircase of your building about two floors below your flat in a plastic bag.  You did not sell them or do anything more with them.   

5.You are a male aged 38 and have 14 previous convictions.  Three of them relate to dishonesty and one is in respect of deception.  The others are to do with selling infringing copies of copyright works.

6.I called for the psychologist’s report and the psychologist’s report has given me a very detailed background and understanding of you.  It says that you suffer from no psychiatric problems and you have no personal or family history of psychiatric problems.  The report highlights to me very clearly and in detail why you committed this offence.  It does support what you told me that you had, in the psychologist’s words, a crush on the victim.  Having regard to the other contents of the report, I now understand why you committed this offence and stole the ladies clothing from the victim. 

7.The contents of the report, however, do not, however alter or change the usual starting point for the offence of domestic burglary. It matters not whether you were a keen sportsman and you went in to steal tennis gear or if you were any other keen person to steal whatever in particular that you would get a reduced sentence from the usual tariff.  The fact is that you did enter these premises as a trespasser and stole items. These items were of considerable value to the victim.  

8.Defendant, I regard this as a common offence of domestic burglary mixed with an unusual twist. The usual starting point for burglary is that of 3 years’ imprisonment after trial.  However, you have pleaded guilty to this offence and giving you full credit for your plea, that term of 3 years’ imprisonment should be reduced to 2 years’ imprisonment. Defendant that is the term to which you shall be so sentenced.

9.In view of the psychological report, I do hope that during your term, whilst in prison, you may well seek treatment from a psychologist might well be recommended.