HCMA82/2005

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO. HCMA 82 OF  2005

(On Appeal from NKCC 9217/2004)

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J U D G M E N T

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1. Mr Wong, you ask very nicely for your sentence to be reduced, and I appreciate that being imprisoned when you have a son at kindergarten and a 1-year old daughter will hurt, but the crime to which you pleaded guilty was a serious one.  You cannot pray in aid the folly of youth.  You are 36 years old.  You have been to prison before.  You have six previous convictions.

2. In the early hours of the morning on 22 November of last year the police stopped you, following a lone woman in a street.  They were suspicious of you, so they stopped you and searched you, and in the hood of the garment you were wearing they found an offensive weapon - a knife.

3. After you had been cautioned, you said this:  “I urgently needed some money for my son’s operation, so I carried a knife with intent to rob someone.  I haven’t done any.  Please give me a chance.”

4. In those circumstances, the magistrate took a starting point of 12 months and gave you a third off your plea, hence your sentence of 8 months.  In the circumstances, you couldn’t have hoped for any less.  The mischief of a man intending to rob, carrying an offensive weapon in a street in these circumstances is only too obvious.

5. The magistrate appreciated, as I do, the plea of guilty and the fact that you were frank to the police and provided the evidence against yourself as to your intentions, and that is why the sentence was as short as it was.  The truth is, you could not have really complained if it had been quite a lot longer.

6. In those circumstances, I am bound to confirm the order the magistrate made and dismiss the appeal.