HKSAR v. HOANG VAN LONG

DCCC 748/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 748 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Hoang Van Long, you have been convicted on your own pleas of the offences of unlawful remaining in Hong Kong after having landed here unlawfully - that is Charge 1; and breach of a deportation order, Charge 2.

2.  The deportation order was made on 19 February 1999.  It followed your conviction on 30 September 1998 of the offences of unlawful remaining and possessing a false instrument.  The deportation order required you to leave Hong Kong and prohibited you from returning, and on 22 April 1999, you were deported back to Vietnam.  Within a year you had breached that order and had returned to Hong Kong in the year 2000.  In that year you were convicted of breach of the deportation order and possessing a false document.

3.  The offences before the court today represent the second time you have breached the deportation order and the third time you have been convicted of the offence of unlawful remaining.  On this occasion you were arrested on 5 July 2013 at a flat in Bedford Road, Tai Kok Tsui.  You claimed that you had entered Hong Kong illegally two days earlier by boat from Guangzhou and had come here to look for work.

4.  I have listened to all that has been said by Mr Li on your behalf, but I am satisfied there are no real circumstances of mitigation in this case.  I am sure Mr Li will have told you that the normal sentence after a plea of guilty for the offence of unlawful remaining is 16 months’ imprisonment.  That, however, is for a first offender.  This is the third time that you have committed the offence of unlawful remaining.

5.  On the last occasion you committed this offence, you were sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for this offence.  Clearly that sentence did not deter you from returning.

6.  I am satisfied that the appropriate sentence for that offence is 21 months’ imprisonment.

7.  Your return to Hong Kong is made more serious by the fact that this was the second time that you have breached the deportation order made against you on 22 April 1999.

8.  I am satisfied that the appropriate sentence after plea for the offence of breach of deportation order on this occasion is 2 years’ imprisonment.

9.  On Charge 1, I sentence you to 21 months’ imprisonment.  On Charge 2, I sentence you to 24 months’ imprisonment.

10.  Both sentences are to run concurrently, and as a result, you are sentenced to a total of 2 years’ imprisonment.