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HCCC156/2010
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 156 OF 2010
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Before:
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The Honourable Mrs Justice V Bokhary
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Date:
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2 July 2010 at 10.11 am
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Present:
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Ms Christal Chan, SPP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr Frederic Whitehouse, instructed by the Legal Aid Department, for the Accused
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Offence:
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Assisting the passage to Hong Kong of unauthorised entrants
(協助載有未獲授權進境者的運輸工具前來香港的旅程)
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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case
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COURT: Yip Tai-leung, you have pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court on a charge of assisting the passage to Hong Kong of unauthorised entrants, contrary to section 37D(1)(a) of the Immigration Ordinance, Cap. 115, and have been committed to this court for sentence.
What you did was to take three women as unauthorised entrants from the Mainland to Hong Kong by a motorised sampan. You did that on return for a promise by a man in the Mainland to pay you RMB600 per passenger, and therefore a total of RMB1,800 for the three women.
When the sampan was intercepted by the police in Hong Kong waters, you were at the back of the sampan steering it, and the three women were sitting near the front portion of the sampan.
The sampan had an overall length of 4.06 metres. It was unseaworthy because the main hull was found to be in poor condition.There was no fire-fighting or life-saving equipment on board, and it has no navigation light for night operation. In fact, from the photographs which your counsel has produced, I can see that there was water inside the main hull of the sampan.
It was in the hours of darkness that the sampan was intercepted in Hong Kong waters. You worked as a painter in the Mainland, and had no prior seagoing experience or any experience of manoeuvring any sampan.
You are aged 20 and have no previous conviction in Hong Kong. I have taken into account everything urged on your behalf. You were in charge of the sampan with no prior navigation experience, and the sampan was unseaworthy.
All things considered, I adopt a starting point of 6 years and discount it by a third to arrive at a sentence of 4 years.
I sentence you to 4 years’ imprisonment.
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