HKSAR v CHAN SHEUNG FUNG

DCCC1132/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1132 OF 2009

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  The defendant has pleaded guilty to three offences of fraud and having heard the facts of the case I have convicted him of those offences. The facts show that the defendant had made applications for credit cards in the name of a lady who had been his girlfriend or lover and in order to do so had provided information about her. At no time had this lady authorised the application for these credit cards.

2.  The first application was to the Mevas Bank and that application enclosed a copy of PW1 who was the ex-girlfriend’s ID card and telephone bill and passbook from the Standard Chartered Bank and a Mevas Bank Visa card was issued as a result of that application.

3.  The next application was to the Dah Sing Bank and similar information was provided and a Visa card was again issued.

4.  Finally, applications were made to the Bank of East Asia, again with similar information in support and a Mastercard and a Visa card were issued by them.

5.  All the credit cards were sent to the address on the telephone bill which the defendant had altered to his own address so that the credit cards were sent to him. Now by 15 May 2008, PW1 became aware that there were credit cards issued in her name and also that there were outstanding payments in relation to them. She realised that the contact number that BEA had was the defendant’s, so she contacted the defendant. Now the defendant immediately admitted to her he had taken her identity card and her Standard Chartered Bank passbook and he used those to apply for credit cards. She urged the defendant to pay the outstanding amounts but also asked him to return her Standard Chartered Bank passbook. Now he agreed to do that and when he did that on 19 May he was in fact arrested by the police.

6.  At his residence the three other credit cards were discovered as were copies of PW1’s ID card, staff card and her Standard Chartered passbook and the defendant then made admissions to the police that he had taken the Standard Chartered Bank passbook from PW1 and her ID card and staff card and made photocopies. He had used these copies and also the Standard Chartered Bank passbook to apply for the credit cards from the various credit card companies and had altered the name on the PCCW telephone bills to provide a false address.

7.  Now there were details of the amounts of money that the defendant obtained on these credit cards. On the Mevas Bank Visa card he had obtained $20,772.50; on the Dah Sing Bank Visa card he had used it up to a value of $13,600.60; on the BEA Visa card that had been used to obtain value of up $16,218.80, and the BEA Mastercard to obtain value of up to $15,100. The defendant admitted those facts.

8.  He is a man of clear record and admitted that in the course of these offences he had used his ex-girlfriend’s details. As far as mitigation is concerned, the defendant is a man aged 40, he is currently unemployed and has been for about three months. In the past he has been a factory worker, a warehouse keeper and a security guard and he points out that he had made admissions and in fact had been arrested in May of 2008. He did not in fact come to be prosecuted and charged until September 2009. He has been prepared to admit his responsibility from the very early stage of these offences being found out.

9.  In terms of sentencing I have been referred to various cases and I have been referred to the factors which are set out in the case of Chan Sui To, which is a case about the use of forged credit cards. I have also been referred to by the prosecution a case called Wai Chung Ming where applications of these forms were to be characterised as credit card fraud.

10.  Now, as far as the Chan Sui To factors are concerned, of course the size of the operation in this case would be small. There has been some planning by the defendant but not a great deal. There is obviously no international dimension and the offences themselves are relatively unsophisticated. But of course the offences themselves are serious, they involve applications and the use of the credit cards in the way set out in the particulars of the offence.

11.  Now, I have to decide what would be the appropriate starting point for sentence in each of these offences and I consider that the starting point should be the same on each offence and that is a starting point of 3 years’ imprisonment. I will reduce that to 2 years imprisonment for the plea of guilty.

12.  Having regard to the overall nature of these frauds and the amount of money involved and the fact the offences are closely set together in time and date back to 2007, I consider that an overall sentence of 2 years’ imprisonment is sufficient and appropriate in this case and to achieve that I will simply order that all the sentences run concurrently one to another to a total of 2 years’ imprisonment.