HKSAR v. Yung Chit Wai

DCCC 736/2014

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 736 OF 2014

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Reasons for Sentence

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Charges and facts

1.D pleads guilty to robbery (1^st charge) and perverting the course of justice (2^nd charge). 

2.In the early hours on 8 July 2014, he drew out an 18.5 cm long fruit knife to threaten PW1, a shopkeeper, at work in a 7-11 convenience store in Wanchai to take out $1,000 from the cash register. He also requested for PW1’s Hong Kong identity card.  He jotted down PW1’s name and identity card number on a piece of tissue and left.  The case was reported to the police.

3.Later, he told his relative, PW2, that he had committed robbery.  PW2 persuaded him to report to the police.  PW2 called the police.  The police arrived and arrested him.  Under caution, he said that he was dizzy when he committed the robbery and that he had disposed of the knife.  The police found the tissue paper with PW1’s particulars and $761.60 out of the $1,000 robbed on his person. 

4.CCTV footages at the store showed the course of his robbery.  Before he left the store, he instructed PW1 to tell the police that he (PW1) was too scared and had forgotten about everything if enquired by the police about the robbery. 

5.In the subsequent video-recorded interview, he confirmed his previous admissions.  He added that before the robbery, he had drunk 5 bottles of cough medicine which made him feel excited.   

6.PW1 identified him as the robber in a subsequent identification parade.  

Mitigation

7.He is 28 years of age, of F. 5 education level.  He was a decoration worker before arrest.  He has mitigating letters from PW2’s husband, his employer, and himself. 

8.A few hours before the robbery, he had drunk 3 bottles of cough medicine.  He then had a row over a petty matter with his brother.  He left home to vent his anger.  He drank 2 more bottles of cough medicine and committed the robbery.  He could not recall the reason for taking down PW1’s name and identity card number.

9.He had 1 previous record for theft and 2 records for possession of Part I poison.  These records do not aggravate his present sentence.        

10.His solicitor, Miss Tang, accepts that the 5 years’ starting point suggested in Mo Kwong-sang v R [1981] HKLR 610 for robbery armed with a knife is applicable to the present case.  She asks me to consider a concurrent sentence for both robbery and perverting. 

Sentencing this defendant

11.I take a starting point of 5 years for the armed robbery.  I give a one-third discount for his plea of guilty.  I give an extra 8 months’ discount for his staying with PW2 to wait for the police to arrest him.  There are no other mitigating factors.  The sentence is 32 months. 

12.I take a starting point of 6 months for the perverting. I give a one-third discount for his plea of guilty.  There are no other mitigating factors.  The sentence is 4 months. 

13.The 2 charges point to separate facts.  The perverting act is an attempt to suppress the investigation of the robbery here.    They should be consecutive sentences.  I do not find wholly or partly concurrent sentences to be warranted in terms of totality.  I make no adjustment.  The overall sentence is 36 months.