HKSAR v. LO WAI NAM

DCCC973/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 973 OF 2012

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Lo Wai-nam, you have pleaded guilty to 17 charges of theft. These thefts took place every few days over a period of six months between 29 January this year and 22 July this year.

2.  In each case you would go to a hairdressing salon on the pretext that you were seeking employment as a junior.  You would provide a false name to the employer who would not check your identity.  On your first day of work you would steal the personal belongings of the staff or customers.  It appears from the facts that your main targets were iPhones, computers and cash.  Having committed the thefts you would then disappear.

3.  It seems clear that you were able to commit these offences because your colleagues were prepared to leave their property open openly in the salons because they trusted you as a fellow employee.  Their trust in you was misplaced. 

4.  I bear in mind all that Miss Lai has said on your behalf.  I bear in mind that you have no previous convictions for offences of dishonesty.  I take into account that you have not committed any criminal offence since you were last sentenced on 14 September 2006.  I also bear in mind that you have not had the advantage and support of being brought up in a stable and happy family.  These matters, however, do not justify in any way you embarking on the course of dishonesty that you did in January this year. 

5.  You are an adult and would have been fully aware of the consequences of your actions.  I am satisfied that the appropriate starting point for each of these thefts is 15 months’ imprisonment. 

6.  You pleaded guilty today and are therefore entitled to the usual discount of one-third.  The appropriate sentence is, therefore, 10 months’ imprisonment on each charge.  I have of course to bear in mind the appropriate totality of sentence in your case. 

7.  For those reasons I am imposing sentence as follows.  On Charge 1 I sentence you to 10 months’ imprisonment.  On Charges 2 to 17 I sentence you to 10 months’ imprisonment, but I order that 1½ months’ imprisonment on each charge shall run consecutively to the sentence on the preceding charge. 

8.  That results in a total sentence of 2 years 10 months’ imprisonment.