HKSAR V Yu Man Lung

DCCC 131/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 131 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.You seem to be making something of a career in crime. You have been convicted I have seen now on 23 separate occasions, you have served a number of sentences of imprisonment, but nothing seems to have deterred you. What might be said in your favour is that this is the first occasion when you have been convicted of a more serious offence of burglary, all the previous offences for dishonesty have been for theft for which the sentences appear to have been, relatively speaking, modest.

2.On this occasion you are going to serve a far longer sentence than you have been used to in the past, simply because burglary is a very serious offence. 

3.As Mr Cheung on your behalf rightly says, these being commercial premises, the appropriate starting point would be one of 30 months’ imprisonment, but as you very sensibly have pleaded guilty and you indicated you were going to do so on your previous appearance, you are going to get a substantial discount.  

4.In respect of the 1st count I impose a sentence of 20 months’ imprisonment; I arrive at that by giving you a one-third discount from the starting point of 30 months.

5.In respect of the 2nd charge, this was an attempted burglary, but it is one which you certainly gave some thought to because I am satisfied that you wore the cleaning company’s uniform to try to give yourself some sort of excuse for being where you were, and I have no doubt that but for your apprehension by the police you would have gone on and broken into that restaurant to try and steal what you could find.  In respect of that charge I am going to take as a starting point a sentence of 2 years’ imprisonment to reflect the fact that it was an attempt and not a completed offence.  I reduce that to reflect your plea by taking a one-third discount and you will therefore serve a term of 16 months’ imprisonment in respect of that, and it seems to me that this being a quite separate occasion there ought to be an element of consecutiveness about that sentence and I am going to direct that 10 months of that 16 months should be served consecutive to the 20 months’ imprisonment in respect to the lst charge, making a total of 30 months’ imprisonment.