THE QUEEN v. YIM CHUN-PONG

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL

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JUDGMENT ON SENTENCE

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Li, V.-P.:

1. We have yesterday dismissed the applicant's application for leave to appeal against conviction. As to sentence he had nothing to add to the ground he filed saying that the sentence of 11 years was excessive. Having regard to his age and that he has no previous conviction of a related offence, we invited counsel for the Crown to supply us with some cases and authorities as to what are the current tariff sentence for similar offences.

2. Counsel adopted a very fair approach by inviting to the Court not to look at the recent statistics because the applicant was not legally represented in this appeal. He invited the Court merely to compare sentences of some other cases. We are indebted to counsel for citing to us some of the recent authorities. They confirmed that, having regard to the large quantity of drugs in this case, (a total of 1.7 kilogramme) the sentence would be in the range of between 8 to 12 years. However, we observe that the applicant was just 21 years old. His parents and his brother and sister were prepared to help him turning a new leaf. He had, hitherto, behaved fairly well. The conclusion of the probation officer is that the accused was a responsible person to his family, albeit temperamental at times. However there was some lack of mutual communication between the parents and the accused. The commission of the present offence was because he was connected with some undesirable friends that he met in the discotheque.

3. Although probation supervision was not recommended, he was a young person, this was his first drug offence. He had been given near the maximum of that range of 8 - 12 years. We are prepared to temper justice with mercy. There is nothing wrong with the sentence of 11 years. Just because of his age we would like to give him some encouragement. For this reason we grant leave to appeal against sentence, set aside both sentences of 11 years and in substitution therefor sentences of 9 years for each court to run concurrently.