HKSAR v. CHEUNG WING LAP

DCCC 1143/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 1143 OF 2012

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Cheung Wing-lap, you have been convicted on your own pleas of three charges of burglary.

2.  All the burglaries took place in the same building, Lung Tat House in Lower Wong Tai Sin Estate.  All the burglaries occurred during the course of the daytime, at the time one or more of the occupants of the flats were at home.

You had slipped into people’s homes with apparently the principal purpose of stealing any money that you could find.

3.  The first of the burglaries occurred on 15 October last year.  The occupier of those premises had accidentally left her key in the iron grille of the front door two days earlier.  You stole the key and returned on 15 October at around lunch time while the occupant was taking a sleep. 

4.  Having entered the flat, you stole the occupant’s wallet from her handbag.  The wallet contained the money and the other items referred to in the charge.  The occupant happened to come into the room while you were still there and, as a result, you fled with her property.

5.  The second and third burglaries occurred on the same day, 22 October.

6.  As far as the second burglary is concerned, the occupants had not locked their front door or the iron grille.  While the husband was asleep in the bedroom and the wife was in the kitchen, you went to the living room and stole the wife’s bag, which contained the Renminbi referred to in the charge.

7.  You then went to a lower floor and committed the third burglary.  Again, the door and the iron grille to that flat had not been locked.  While the occupants were in the bedroom and the bathroom, you entered the flat and prised open a drawer, from which you stole the RMB4,200 referred to in the charge.

8.  In considering the appropriate starting point in your case, I bear in mind that these burglaries took place in the daytime and that no force was used by you to gain entrance to the flats.

9.  I also bear in mind, though no thanks to you, that all the money or all the property which was the subject of the second and third burglaries has been recovered.

10.  On the other hand, it has to be borne in mind that these were offences committed while the occupants were at home, still in the premises. 

11.  In one case, the female victim came across you while you were still in her flat.  It is disturbing enough to know that a stranger has been in one’s own home, but it is even more disturbing if one is actually present and sees that stranger.

12.  What makes these offences particularly serious is that you are a man who makes a habit of burgling other people’s homes.  You have ten previous convictions for burglary and five previous convictions for attempted burglary.  You have served numerous terms of imprisonment for these offences. 

13.  As I am sure you know from your past experience, the normal starting point for first offenders of full age who commit burglary in domestic premises is 3 years’ imprisonment.

14.  You, though, are not a first offender.

15.  However, bearing in mind that no force was used to enter the premises and that the offences occurred in the daytime, I am prepared to adopt a starting point of 3 years in respect of each offence.

16.  You pleaded guilty and are entitled to the usual discount of one-third.

17.  I accordingly pass sentences of 2 years’ imprisonment on you in respect of each charge.

18.  I am of the view that the appropriate overall sentence, in your case, is one of 3 years’ imprisonment.

19.  I accordingly order that 6 months of the sentence I have passed on Charge 2 run consecutively to the sentence on Charge 1, and that 6 months of the sentence I have passed on Charge 3 shall run consecutively to the sentences I passed on Charges 1 and 2.

20.  You are, therefore, sentenced to a total of 3 years’ imprisonment.