THE QUEEN v. CHEUNG CHI-KWONG

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

MAGISTRACY CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 616 OF 1988

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J U D G M E N T

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1. The appellant was convicted on his own plea of guilty in the Magistrate Court of two offences, one of remaining in Hong Kong without the authority of the Director of Immigration after having landed unlawfully and the other of using a Hong Kong identity card relating to another person.

2. The appellant had twice before been apprehended for being unlawfully in Hong Kong and was eventually on each occasion repatriated to China. This is the third time that he has managed to enter Hong Kong illegally. The learned Magistrate sentenced him to imprisonment for 18 months on each charge and ordered that the sentences run concurrently.

3. The appellant in his appeal against severity of the sentences has not put before me anything to indicate that the sentences were either wrong in principle or excessive He was arrested on the 13th April and committed to the custody of the Immigration Department of the Victoria Immigration Centre for the purposes of assessing his immigration status. He was not charged with the offences until the 10th June. He tells me that the learned Magistrate when sentencing him, after the appellant drew his attention the long period he had been in custody before being charged, said that the sentences would date from the time that he was originally taken into custody. The prison authorities, however, have told him that the sentences will date from the 10th June. In view of the provisions of Section 67A of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance that would appear to be right.

4. I will, therefore, allow the appeal, quash the sentences and substitute therefor sentences of imprisonment for 16 months to be served concurrently, so as to give him credit for the period he spent in custody between 13th April and 10th June.