THE QUEEN v. NG CHI MO

-------

-----------------

JUDGMENT

-----------------

Fuad, V.-P. (giving the judgment of the Court) :

1. The applicant, Ng Chi Mo, who is aged about 34, pleaded guilty before His Honour Judge Corcoran in the District Court on 1st August last year to a charge of being a member of a crew of a ship which entered Hong Kong waters with unauthorised entrants on board, contrary to section 37C(1)(a) of the Immigration Ordinance. He was sentenced to 3 1/2 years' imprisonment and now seeks leave to appeal against that sentence.

2. The facts were that on 6th June a customs launch intercepted a vessel off Chai Wan heading towards Hong Kong. The applicant was in charge of the vessel. At first 13 persons were seen on board and all claimed to be crew members. It was later discovered that there were 10 illegal immigrants hidden in two separate compartments and of the 13 men who had pretended to be crew members, only 6 turned out to be members of the crew; that made a total of 17 illegal immigrants.

3. The applicant raises a number of grounds in his application for leave to appeal all based on a plea to the compassion of the Court. The judge in his Reasons for Sentence took into account the fact that the applicant had pleaded guilty and the facts that had urged before him by the applicant's lawyer in his trial, which were that he was not the organiser but had been approached by others to do what he did; he had a low educational background; his position as the sole breadwinner of his family and a debt of $2000 RMB he owed.

4. The judge referred to the guidelines laid down by this Court in The Queen v. Ho Siu Lun [1987] HKLR 1086 and expressed the view that had the case gone to trial the appropriate sentence would have been 5 years but in the light of the applicant's plea of guilty, his clear record and his financial difficulties a sentence of 3 1/2 years would be imposed.

5. There is nothing whatever wrong with this sentence for this serious offence and it is impossible for us to interfere with it. The application is refused.