THE QUEEN v. LAI MEL-YING

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

Magistracy Criminal Appeal No. 803 of 1995

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JUDGMENT

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1. This Appellant was charged with contravening her conditions of stay as a visitor in Hong Kong. She was not allowed to take up any employment but she was found to be working as a prostitute. The police infiltrated a vice ring of which she was a member and on the clearest evidence she had to plead guilty on 22nd July 1995.

2. The learned Magistrate, Mr. James Lee, sentenced her to a total of four months' imprisonment having made his starting point six months' imprisonment which he then reduced by two months because of her clear record and her plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity.

3. I am extremely grateful to counsel on both sides for having researched in some depth the sentencing policy in similar kinds of case to this. The value of the Attorney General's Chambers records is to be seen in their synopsis of some 24 cases which I have had some time now to consider and, as Mr. McMaster rightly concedes, the sentence imposed in this case does appear to be longer than any other case in this category. It is in those circumstances, having looked at the cases placed before me today which perhaps the learned Magistrate did not have the advantage of seeing, that I am able to say with some confidence that the sentence imposed was too long. In my judgment it is very difficult, with so many factors to be taken into account, to issue any tariff guidelines. Each case has to be taken on its own merits. I think the proper sentence here ought to be reduced to four weeks.