HKSAR v. NG LIM CHING

 DCCC214/2010

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 214 OF 2010

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to three charges, two of which are offences of burglary, contrary to section 11(1)(b) and (4) of the Theft Ordinance, Cap. 210, Laws of Hong Kong, and one offence of attempted burglary, contrary to section 11(1)(a) and (4) of the Theft Ordinance and section 159(g) of the Crimes Ordinance.

2.  The summary of facts which you have admitted indicate that on 16 December of last year, at 2.45 am, a security guard spotted you stretching your hand into Room 208 of Ming Wah Da Ha and attempt to open the iron gate. He gave chase. You were eventually intercepted, and the case was reported to the police.

3.  In the subsequent police enquiries you admitted that you had committed two previous burglaries in the same building, again in the early hours of the morning. Those two offences are the offences which form the subject matter of Charges 1 and 2.

4.  Save for your plea of guilty to these three charges, for which I will give you full credit, nothing of any significance has been put before me on your behalf by way of mitigation.

5.  You are a single man of 32 years of age and have a poor criminal record, which includes no less than eight previous convictions for burglaries. There are a number of aggravating features in this case, which include the fact that these are multiple domestic burglaries, all committed within a short period of time. The burglaries took place in the early hours of the morning when the premises were occupied. In addition, you are a persistent offender who, as I have already said, have eight previous convictions for burglaries. This is a further aggravating feature.

6.  The normal starting point for domestic burglaries for a person of full age and clear record is one of 3 years’ imprisonment in the absence of aggravating features. Due to the aggravating features that I have identified, I will adopt the higher starting point of 4 years’ imprisonment on Charge 1. I will discount this by one-third to reflect your plea of guilty, coming to 2 years and 8 months’ imprisonment on Charge 1.

7.  I similarly adopt as my starting point 4 years with regard to Charge 2. Once again this will be discounted by one-third to reflect your plea of guilty, coming to 2 years 8 months on Charge 2. Due to the question of totality, I order 9 months of this sentence to run consecutively to the sentence on Charge 1.

8.  With regard to Charge 3, I adopt the starting point of 3 years’ imprisonment, which after deduction of one-third to reflect your plea of guilty is a sentence of 2 years’ imprisonment, I order this to run concurrently with the sentence on Charge 1.

9.  In addition, by the commission of these offences you are in breach of a suspended sentence of 1 month imprisonment imposed on you on 3 August 2009 for an offence of resisting a police officer. I activate that sentence of 1 month, which is ordered to run consecutively to the sentences on Charges 1 to 3, arriving at a total sentence of 3 years 6 months’ imprisonment in all.