HKSAR v Anik Handayani

DCCC 10/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 10 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a single offence of burglary, contrary to sections 11(1)(b) and (4) of the Theft Ordinance, Cap.210. You admitted the brief facts and I convicted you.

2.  Briefly, what happened is as follows.   Poon Pik-kiu (PW1) resides at Room 2617, Un Lok House, Un Chau Estate, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon.  

3.  A duplicate key was kept at the flat of her mother (PW2) and her brother’s flat (PW3).   That is Room 6, 7th Floor, Ocean Shores Tower 6, O King Road, Tsuen Kwan O, where you worked as a domestic helper.   The key was only given to you when PW2 visited PW1.

4.  A CCTV camera photographed moving objects and images and went to PW1’s email.

5.  At noon on 28 October of last year PW1 left the premises secured.   She returned at ll.00 pm and all seemed to be in order, but when she checked her emails she found six images of the back of a female who resembled you ransacking the drawers.   This occurred at 7.07 pm.

6.  Upon checking the drawers she found $300 SGD missing, which is about HK$1,800.  

7.  At about 2340 hours on 29 October last you were located by police at the premises of PW2 and PW3. You admitted you had entered the premises with the key and stolen the money.   Police seized HK$1,240 from your handbag.  

8.  In a subsequent interview under caution you admitted the offence yet again.   You said you had changed the money into HK$l,280 and spent $40.   You had returned the key to the premises.   You admitted that the money found in your handbag was what was left of the money you had changed.

9.  You are a lady of clear record in Hong Kong.  On your behalf Mr Ng entered mitigation.  He told me you are 32 years of age, about to be 33, divorced, and you have a son of 7 in Indonesia.   You were educated to second elementary level.  You married in 2002 but you were divorced in 2007.  You had been sending HK$3,000 a month back to your family in Indonesia.   He told me that your father is very ill, he is a diabetic, aged 52, and your mother in her early 50’s.     In your absence your mother cares for your son.  

10.  You first came to Hong Kong in 2003, but then returned to Indonesia.  You came back to Hong Kong in 2006, and you had worked for your present employer since May 2010.   Of course, since the present offence, you have been dismissed from that employment.   Mr Ng stressed the small amount of money that was taken, and that in fact only HK$40 has been lost, the rest will be returned.   Whilst accepting this is a fundamental breach of trust, he stressed your plea of guilty, which is the main mitigation in this case.   On your behalf, he asked me to be as lenient as possible. 

11.  I turn now to the sentence. This is a burglary of domestic premises, it is a fundamental breach of trust. In mitigation you have a clear record and you were entirely co-operative with the police upon arrest.   I accept that little was lost, and in fact the majority of the money will be returned to the victim.   Also, it is a point of mitigation, in my opinion, that you are a person known to the family, so had you come upon them in the premises there would not have been the same traumatic reaction that a stranger would have caused.   Taking all factors into account, it is my opinion that this calls for the standard penalty.  

12.  I take therefore a starting point of 3 years’ imprisonment, reduced to 2.  You will go to prison for 2 years.