HKSAR v. CHAN SIU-HUNG

DCCC787/2010

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 787 OF 2010

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to three charges before this court, the first two charges are charges relating to using a false instrument, contrary to section 73 of the Crimes Ordinance, the 3rd charge relates to possession of false instruments, contrary to section 75(1) of the Crimes Ordinance. The first two charges involve using one false credit card each and the 3rd charge relates to having in your possession six forged credit cards.

2.  At about 6.10 pm on 30 April 2010 you purchased a Louis Vuitton handbag at the value of $10,300 at Pacific Place using a forged American Express card.  Later that day at    8.30 pm you went to Louis Vuitton Store at Ocean Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui, with the handbag and its sales receipt and requested to change that handbag with another handbag.  However, there was a difference in price of $400 to which you were asked to pay.  You then took out the Toronto Dominion Bank forged VISA card to pay for the difference.  The salesgirl found the card suspicious and called the police and checked with the card centre.

3.  Subsequently, you paid the difference in cash and left the shop.  However, outside the shop you were immediately intercepted by police officers.  In your possession was found the six forged credit cards including the Toronto Dominion Bank credit card.  You immediately admitted that you knew the cards were forged and you had used forged credit cards for making purchases because you were in need of money. 

4.  You further admitted under a subsequent record of interview that you met a male known as “Ah Ming” in an amusement game centre in Causeway Bay on 28 April 2010 and you told “Ah Ming” that you were in need of money.  “Ah Ming” therefore asked you if you wanted to make purchases with forged credit cards to earn quick money and you agreed.  In the afternoon of 30 April “Ah Ming” provided you with five forged credit cards which were some of the five cards in Charge 3.  Those cards you knew were forged but you never used them. 

5.  Later on “Ah Ming” provided you with two more credit cards, forged credit cards, that is the American Express card that you had used to purchase the handbag and the Toronto Dominion Bank one.  Ah Ming asked you to make purchases with those two cards.  You used the American Express card to buy the Louis Vuitton handbag and then disposed of that credit card.  As the bag you had purchased from Louis Vuitton was not the one that “Ah Ming” had requested you therefore went to the Louis Vuitton Store in Tsim Sha Tsui to exchange it for another one. 

6.  Mr Wilson Yeung, your solicitor, has made full and thorough mitigation on your behalf, and I have taken all that he has to say for you into account.  I have also taken into regard the letters that you and your parents have written to me in mitigation telling me the reasons why you have committed this offence and your parents asking for leniency as you are the sole supporter of the family and they are aged 70-odd with various illnesses and are not of good health.

7.  You are aged 35 and have four previous convictions.  The first in 1992 for robbery, theft in 1993 and 2008 and possession of Part 1 poison in 2008.  You were not sentenced to imprisonment but were given probation and 3 months’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months for those various charges.

8.  In 2008 you married your wife who lives in the PRC.  You studied until Form 4 and then eventually completed a vocational electricity course and became a registered electrical worker and worked for several property management companies.  In March 2010 you had become unemployed as a result of your employer’s loss of business.   Prior to that you were earning $11,000 per month.  As you were laid off and needed money to support your parents and your wife, you resorted to committing this crime to earn fast money.   You did not, you say, commit this offence for your own personal benefit but totally out of consideration for your family and your wife. 

9.  I accept through your plea of guilty that you are remorseful for what you have done.  In fact, immediately after your arrest you admitted everything to the police including the use of the American Express card to which you had disposed of in Charge 1 and you were very co-operative. 

10.  In this case these charges relate to forged credit cards.  The relevant cases to which I have had regard to for various factors when sentencing in relation to forged credit cards are the Queen v Chan Sui To [1996] 2 HKCLR 128 and also that of HKSAR v Tu I Lang CACC464/2007.   In that case the court said that:

“Where the facts of the offence point to a small unsophisticated operation involving only one or a few forged credit cards uncomplicated by other evidence materially linking the offender to a larger operation, then a starting point of 3 years’ imprisonment or less would be appropriate.”

11.  It is clear from these cases that immediate custodial sentences are called for.  In this case the money involved was $10,400, not a particularly large amount.  But it does concern quite a large number of forged credit cards in that you had totally seven forged credit cards in your possession at one time.  You had used two of them.  You were linked with others who were in a position to obtain these false credit cards and you had four of these credit cards in your own name.  Two of the other credit cards were similar to your name as in “Chan Siu-ling”, but your name is Chan Siu-hung, and one of the other cards was “Chan S L”.

12.  I accept what you have had to say, there is no evidence otherwise that those other cards “Chan Siu-ling” were not going to be used by you.  However, the fact that you were in possession of other forged credit cards although not used, there was a potential for loss, on those cards.  There is not in this case an international dimension, and I accept here you did not play a major role and that you were a mere cog in the wheel as the user of the credit card. 

13.  Taking into account all those factors, defendant, I sentence you to the following terms. 

14.  On Charge 1, 2 and 3, I take a starting point of 3 years’ imprisonment.  I must however give you full credit for your plea of guilty and reduce those terms to 2 years’ imprisonment.  And I have taken into account the principle of totality and I consider that all those terms are to run concurrent to each other.  That makes a total term of 2 years’ imprisonment.