HKSAR v. MUHAMMAD IRFAN

HCMA950/2001

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO.950 OF 2001

(ON APPEAL FROM KTCC 4298 OF 2001)

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J U D G M E N T

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1. This is an appeal against sentence only.

2. The appellant was convicted on his own plea of firstly an offence of possession of an identity card relating to another person; and secondly of an offence of using an identity card relating to another person; and finally of an offence of breach of a condition of stay by overstaying in Hong Kong by approximately six weeks.

3. The facts of the case were quite straightforward. The appellant was stopped by a police officer on a public street. The appellant produced to the police officer another person's Hong Kong identity card. He was subsequently arrested and admitted that he had earlier shown the same identity card some weeks before so as to be able to attend a training course at a construction site where he wished to work.

4. The appellant in his original ground of appeal complained the present sentence imposed by the magistrate of nine months' imprisonment for each of the identity card offences and one month imprisonment in respect of the overstaying offence, with a total sentence of 10 months' imprisonment were too severe, but informs me he no longer urges that ground of appeal. He accepts the sentences were not too severe in law. He simply urges upon me humanitarian grounds relating primarily to the illness of his mother in Pakistan.

5. I accept that his mother is genuinely ill. The learned magistrate at the time of sentence accepted the same matters that are being presented to me in that regard. In his Reasons for Sentence, the learned magistrate said this :

"(c) Based on the documents (i.e. the medical report and the written Request), it appeared that the Appellant's mother was ill and quite under stress over the Appellant's situation in Hong Kong. ..."

He accepted that the appellant's mother was under the treatment of a doctor in Pakistan. He went on to say :

"... I came to the conclusion that the Appellant's case only justified some but not a substantial degree of deviation from the normal sentence of 15 months' imprisonment. ..."

6. In short, the sentencing magistrate took into account the same humanitarian ground that has been advanced before me. The reduction in sentence that he allowed the appellant as a result of those humanitarian matters was significant. In my view it cannot be said that he has insufficiently allowed for the humanitarian matters the appellant urges upon me.

7. Effectively this appeal is simply a plea for further mercy by the appellant. I am satisfied that the magistrate's sentence was appropriate and cannot be criticized. Accordingly, this appeal against sentence is dismissed.