HKSAR v. KWOK KIN WING

DCCC 1200/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1200 OF 2009

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Reasons for Sentence

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Charge and facts

1.  The Defendant pleads guilty to theft of his employer’s monies of HK$1,073,808.62 in total between 26 February 2007 and 7 August 2008.

2.  The Defendant was assistant accountant of ING Life Insurance Company (Bermuda) Limited (“ING”) between 1994 and 2008. He was entrusted to keep all ING blank cheques of ING’s company account and held a key to the cheque signing machine. He was the only person in charge of the actual operation of the machine. The senior accounting manager of ING also kept a key.

3.  After the payee and the amount of the cheques had been printed on the cheques by the computer department of ING, the cheques would be passed to the accounting department for recording and signature printing. After all signatures had been printed out by the machine, the Defendant would deposit the cheques into the bank for further processing. No further verification by other staff would be conducted over those cheques.

4.  Another assistant accountant of ING, Shek Ka-kui, noticed suspicious transactions in ING’s bank account on 10 November 2008. True copies of cheques handled by the Defendant were obtained from HSBC. It was discovered that a number of cheques had been deposited into the Defendant’s personal account with the Bank of East Asia and credit card account with the Hang Seng Bank.

5.  Shek conducted an interview with the Defendant. The Defendant admitted the misappropriation of ING’s funds and promised to repay ING. The case was thus reported to the police.

6.  The Defendant surrendered to the police on 2 December 2008. In a cautioned interview, he said:

(1)  He had misappropriated money from ING to pay his gambling debts and credit card debts;

(2)  The cheques had been deposited into either his own bank account, his credit card account, or the investment accounts held on his behalf by his family and friends; and

(3)  The funds received by his friends would be transferred back to him.

7.  According to ING’s auditor, a total sum of HK$1,073,808.62 had been stolen by him between 26 February 2007 and 7 August 2008.

Mitigation put forward

8.  The Defendant is now 37 years of age. He has a clear record. He completed university education at Bolton University in U.K. in 2007. Actually he started working as a clerk 17 years ago. He joined ING 14 years ago. Because of the heavy and extended working hours, he turned to gambling in Macau to relieve pressure. Soon he resorted to the present offence to repay his gambling debts. After learning of the present offence, his wife divorced him last year. She was granted custody of their daughter, now 6-year-old. He now lives with his parents. He contributes $10,000 to the household and his daughter’s upkeep out of his salary of $14,000 per month.

9.  Since 2000 up to the present date, he has been sponsoring a child under the World Vision. The monthly contribution was first $200, then raised to $220 in 2005. Since June 2009, he has been doing voluntary work for the Volunteered Movement Organization. So far, he has attended 12 sessions, each for 1.5 to 2.5 hours long.

Breach of trust

10.  In HKSAR v Cheung Mee Kiu CACC 99/2006, the Court of Appeal laid down sentencing guidelines for theft involving breach of trust as follows:

(a)	over $15 million,	10 years or more;
(b)	$3 million to $15 million,	5 to 9 years;
(c)	$1 million to $ 3 million,	3 to 4 years;
(d)	$250,000 to $1 million,	2 to 3 years;
(e)	less than $250,000,	less than 2 years.

Sentence I pass

11.  Based on the guidelines in Cheung Mee Kiu (above), I take 3 years as the starting point. I reduce it by one-third due to his plea of guilty. His long-term contribution in time and money to voluntary work has to be recognized. I reduce his sentence further by 3 months. The sentence is 1 year 9 months.