HKSAR v. TANG SUK HAN

DCCC 903/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 903 OF 2009

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Reasons for Sentence

1.  The defendant pleaded guilty to 2 charges of conspiracy to use false instruments [contrary to section 73 and section 159A of Cap 200].

2.  She used false address proof and factitious employment letters to secure the granting of a credit card with Aeon Credit Service (Asia) Company Limited in July 2006. The defendant drew on a cash advance of HK$5,000 with the use of the credit card. About 10 days later the defendant used the same set of false documents to obtain a financial loan of HK$8,000 from Dah Sing Bank Limited. The defendant did not repay the two sums.

3.  The events happened in 2006 but the defendant was not arrested until 3 years later in July 2009 when she was about to leave Hong Kong to go to Macau. After her arrest, the defendant admitted under caution she was given the false documents by CHOW Po Fung and she secured the loans to help CHOW out of his financial difficulty.

4.  The defendant secured a credit card and a bank loan in her own name with the use of factitious documents in support. Her acts differed slightly from the international credit card fraud scam. Instead of jeopardizing the integrity of the whole of the worldwide credit card system, the defendant jeopardized the local interest of the Aeon Credit Service (Asia) Company Limited. Her supply of the factitious residential address makes recovery proceeding against her difficult.

5.  The defendant is aged 31. It was said in her mitigation that she succumbed to the nagging of her co-accused in participating in the fraud. It was said the defendant’s co-accused CHOW Po Fung was the mastermind in the whole plot and the defendant obtained no financial gain out of the arrangement.

6.  In the recent case of Wong Kim Fai CACC-203/2008 (13 May 2009 decision) the Court of Appeal accepted a 4 years imprisonment for the charges of fraud and forgery to be appropriate when Wong Kim Fai used factitious information (including false personal identity) to apply for credit cards.

7.  CHOW Po Fung, the defendant’s co-accused had been dealt with in 2007 in the case of DCCC-338/2007 where CHOW was sentenced on a starting point of 3 ½ years for the same offence of conspiracy to use false instrument.

8.  The scheme used by Wong Kim Fai in CACC-203/2008 was more elaborate than the scheme used by the present defendant. Wong’s case involved a greater amount of credit card applications. In light of the smaller scale of the defendant’s fraudulent practice in the present case, CHOW Po Fung was likely the mastermind of the scheme,  the mother of the defendant having paid up the sum of HK$13,000 to reimburse the 2 financial institutions, I consider the starting point of 2 ½ years imprisonment to be the appropriate starting point for sentence for the defendant.

9.  Giving her credit for her pleas of guilty indicating her remorse, I accord her 1/3 discount and sentence her to terms of 20 months imprisonment for each of the 2 charges, both terms to be served concurrently.