|
DCCC 893/2013
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO 893 OF 2013
----------------------
| |
HKSAR |
|
| |
v |
|
| |
Chow Koon-hei |
|
| ---------------------- |
| Before: |
HH Judge Tallentire |
| Date: |
6 November 2013 at 2.46 pm |
| Present: |
Mr Alex Wong, PP, of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR |
| |
Ms Tam May, of Solomon C Chong & Co, assigned by the Director of Legal Aid, for the defendant |
---------------------
Reasons for Sentence
---------------------
1. Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to one offence of theft, contrary to section 9 of the Theft Ordinance, Cap 210.
2. You admitted the Brief Facts and I convicted you.
3. What happened is as follows. PW1, aged 78, is the owner of a preserved seafood shop at No 359 Ki Lung Street, Sham Shui Po. On 28 July last at about 1700 hours he was serving customers outside the shop. The location was crowded. WPC12867 (PW2) and SPC54369 (PW3) saw you outside the shop looking at passers-by. You were carrying a shoulder bag.
4. You approached PW1 from behind and used your right hand to hold the shoulder bag as cover and extended your left hand into the left front pocket of PW1’s shorts. You took $2,000 and turned to leave.
5. PW3 intercepted you and retrieved the $2,000 from your left hand. PW1 confirmed the loss of the $2,000 from his pocket.
6. You admitted to stealing the money. You were arrested and cautioned and you reconfirmed your admission of theft. You said you stole it to buy medicine.
7. In a subsequent video-recorded interview you repeated your admissions.
8. You have a truly appalling criminal record, 47 previous convictions on 43 occasions, 27 of those convictions involve dishonesty and most are for pickpocketing.
9. On your behalf, Miss Tam entered limited mitigation. In truth, there was little she could say. She told me that you are 64 years of age, married with a wife of 40 and a son in the mainland. Your son is aged one. They are hoping to join you in Hong Kong within a year. I am told they are financially dependent upon you.
10. You wrote a letter to court which is in Chinese, so Miss Tam very kindly summarized it on your behalf. In that letter you tell me that you are of old age, in poor health, that you are remorseful and you confirm that your family rely financially upon you. You ask for leniency.
11. Miss Tam summarized by saying that the only real mitigation was your plea of guilty, and she referred me to a starting point which is usually 12 to 15 months.
12. I turn now to the sentence. As I have said, you have an extremely long and serious criminal record, covering six decades beginning in the 60s. You committed your first offence when you were aged 20 in 1969 and have attended regularly before the courts thereafter. That record tells me numerous offences are for theft or pickpocketing and interspersed with other crimes of dishonesty.
13. You are a repeat offender of epic proportions. It is an additional aggravating feature that you committed the present offence in a crowded place. Miss Tam is correct to say that the major point of mitigation is your plea of guilty although I do take into account your co-operation on arrest. Given the number of pickpocketing offences you have committed, I intend to go off tariff as you are a repeat offender.
14. In this case, taking all matters into account, I take a starting point of 21 months’ imprisonment, reduced to 14 months for your plea of guilty.
| |
Tallentire |
| |
District Judge |
|