HKSAR v. Lau Wing Sang

DCCC 980/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 980 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of theft, contrary to section 9 of the Theft Ordinance. The offence which you have pleaded guilty to is commonly referred to as pickpocketing. This pickpocketing occurred on board a railway carriage between Shatin Station and Fotan Station.

2.On 9 September at around 10.10 am, you boarded the carriage at the Shatin Station.  Subsequent to you boarding the carriage, you sat next to the victim.  You sat next to him despite there being empty seats away from him.  You sat very close to him.  He, the victim, felt something on the waist bag that he had around his waist.  He checked his waist bag and noticed that his mobile phone was missing from his bag. 

3.By this time, the train had travelled to Fotan Station.  At this juncture, you stood up and attempted to leave the carriage with a black recycling bag in your hands.  The victim immediately confronted you, and a scuffle ensued.  You both alighted the carriage onto the platform.  You then told the victim that you would return his mobile phone to him.  At this time you left your black bag on the platform near the escalator. The struggle continued between you and the victim up the escalator.  During that time, you called out a name, Wah Lui, for a few times.  This Wah Lui was your accomplice in the charge.

4.When you arrived at the concourse level of the station, a staff member of the station approached you and you were subsequently arrested by the police.  Under caution, you admitted stealing the mobile phone of the victim out of greed.  The victim’s mobile phone, however, was not recovered.

5.Defendant, your counsel, Mr Anthony Tse, has mitigated fully and thoroughly on your behalf before me today.  You are 58 years of age and have 25 convictions arising out of 22 appearances in court.  18 of those convictions relate to theft, and on the record, 9 are stated to be for pickpocketing.  Your last conviction was on 18 January 2012 to which you were sentenced to 26 months for the charges of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and theft.  That case number was DC 1328 of 2011.  I have had that reasons for sentence interpreted to me by my interpreter, and that theft related to you stealing a gold chain and pendant from an 84-year-old lady which she was wearing by using a set of pliers to break it off.  I find those facts similar to or akin to pickpocketing.

6.Mr Tse has submitted that the reason why you committed this offence is because you had inadequate funds to make a living. Since April of 2013, you had been out of a job and was receiving public assistance of $2,000 a month.  So on this occasion, you found an opportunity to steal the victim’s phone from his unzipped waist bag and therefore you took this opportunity.  It is submitted that you did plead guilty you have shown your regret for what you had done.  You admitted stealing the mobile phone immediately to the victim and to the police, and Mr Tse rightly points out that your strongest mitigating factor is your plea of guilty.

7.Guidelines for the offence for pickpocketing are laid down by the Court of Appeal in the case of HKSAR v Ngo Van Huy CACC 107 of 2004.  The sentencing guideline for this offence for first-time offenders after trial is a sentence of between 12 and 15 months’ imprisonment.

8.Defendant, you are not a first-time offender. You have numerous similar convictions for pickpocketing.  As stated by the Court of Appeal, this is an aggravating factor of which there should be enhancement of the starting point. 

9.Defendant, the facts of this case show to me this was not an opportunistic crime.  You boarded the train at Shatin.  The very next station is Fotan.  You immediately sat next to the victim and deliberately sat very close to him.  Within that one station and therefore in a few minutes, you had stolen his mobile phone from his bag.  Fortunately the victim had known it was you who stole his phone.  Yet despite admitting you had stolen the phone the phone was not found upon you.  You very cunningly left the bag down on the platform and called out to your accomplice, Wah Lui, that was probably to indicate to her that you had left the phone there for her. Despite you telling the victim you would return his phone to him, you never did.  You had never intended to do so but had intended to pass it to your accomplice.

10.Defendant you are, as can be seen from the record, a professional pickpocketer.  You are a multiple offender.  This was a well planned calculated pickpocket committed with another.  In those circumstances, I consider the starting point should be one of 18 months’ imprisonment had I convicted you after trial.  There are aggravating factors in this case which should enhance the sentence further. One of those is the fact that you committed this offence in conjunction with another person, to which I enhance your sentence by a further 3 months’ imprisonment. 

11.As mentioned earlier, you have numerous previous convictions and thus have an appalling criminal record.  The public should be protected from people like you.  In view of your record I shall enhance your sentence by a further 9 months’ imprisonment.  That makes a total starting point of 30 months’ imprisonment had I convicted you after trial.

12.You have pleaded guilty to the charge.  You are therefore entitled to the usual one-third discount, and in those circumstances, that sentence shall be one of 20 months’ imprisonment or 1 year and 8 months’ imprisonment to which you shall so serve.