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DCCC806/2010
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO.806OF 2010
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| Before: |
Deputy District Judge A Yim |
| Date: |
12 August 2010 at 11:31 am |
| Present: |
Ms CHAN Sui Tak Monica, PP,ofthe Department of Justice,forHKSAR
Mr YUE King Tin Robin, instructed by Messrs Hui & Lam, for the defendant |
| Offence: |
(1)Conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice
(串謀妨礙司法公正)
(2) Attempting to obtain property by deception
(企圖以欺騙手段取得財產) |
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Reasons for Sentence
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The defendant was charged for
- Conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice, contrary to common Law and sections 159A and 159C of the Crimes ordinance, Cap.200 and punishable under section 101I(1) of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, Cap 221;
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- Attempting to obtain property by deception, contrary to section 17(1) of the Theft Ordinance, Cap.210 and section 159G of the Crimes Ordinance, Cap.200
The defendant pleaded guilty and admitted the facts, he is convicted accordingly.
Facts
On 18 November 2009, the defendant was disqualified by court pursuant to Road Traffic (Driving Offence Points) Ordinance Cap.375 from holding or obtaining a driving licence for 6 months.
On 15 December 2009, the defendant drove a light goods vehicle bearing registration number JJ9668 and ended up in a minor traffic accident at Tai Po Road-Piper’s Hill. As a result a scratch was caused on the left rear wheel of the vehicle. The defendant reported the accident to his broker and informed his broker that he would claim for the insurance.
On 20 December 2009, the defendant conspired together with Siu Pik-ying (SIU) falsely representing to the Police that SIU was the driver of JJ9668 at time of the traffic accident. (Charge 1)
On 20 December SIU signed on the insurance claim form, in which she stated that she was the driver of JJ9668 at time of the traffic accident. On 23 December 2009 the defendant attempted to obtain compensation from the Bank of China Group Insurance Company Ltd by getting SIU to hand over the claim form signed by her to his insurance broker. (Charge 2)
On 22 December 2009, SIU surrendered herself to the Police and admitted that she was not the driver at the material time.
The defendant was granted court bail on 16 July 2010, one of the conditions being not to leave Hong Kong, however, the defendant attempted to leave Hong Kong via the airport on the same day; since then he was remanded.
The defendant drove while disqualified and without third party insurance, these are serious offences liable for imprisonment and disqualification. The defendant attempted to cover up his misdeed by getting someone pretended to be the driver; and went further to make a false claim on the insurance policy. I consider the appropriate starting point for charge 1 to be 9 months and the appropriate starting point for charge 2 to be 24 months.
Mitigation
The defendant aged 33, married with a daughter aged 3.5. The defendant was a self-employed driver earning about $26,000 per month while the wife is a sales earning $20,000 per month. The defendant has full family support, and took part in voluntary work.
The defence submitted that because of the disqualification order in 2009, he employed a substitute driver to do the delivery. On the day in question, the substitute driver was not able to work, in order not to risk the contract with the clients, he drove himself, however, he crashed his vehicle and liable for $180,000 repairing costs, in order to claim the repairing costs he committed the offences.
The defendant entitled to 1/3 discount for his plea. The defendant has 4 previous convictions, 2 involving dishonesty. I noted that since the disqualification in 2009, the defendant was found to drive on two occasions, one on 15 December 2009 and the other occasion on 24 April 2010, further the fact shows that he disregard the bail condition; these show that he had no respect to the laws.
I do not consider there to be any mitigating factor call for further deduction. However, taking into account of the totality consideration, I order the sentence to run partly concurrent.
The defendant was in breach of the bail condition, no explanation was put forward for his breach; I considered and forfeited the bail monies $1000 in full.
Order
Charge 1 sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
Charge 2 sentenced to 16 months imprisonment, 4 months concurrent with charge 1, making a total of 18 months.
The bail monies $1000 be forfeited .
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(A.Yim) |
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DeputyDistrict Judge |
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