HKSAR v. TAMANG NORBU LAMA AND ANOTHER

DCCC1020/2011

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1020 OF 2011

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendants, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery, contrary to section 10 of the Theft Ordinance, Cap. 210.

2.  You have admitted that, on 21 August 2011, outside a Circle K convenience store at Kwong Wah Plaza, at No. 11 Tai Tong Road, Yuen Long, you robbed a lady Fung So-kam of her handbag.  The contents of her handbag are particularised in the charge, and I shall not repeat them.  On the whole, they were the usual things such as ID card, bank cards, cash of HK$200 and cash of RMB1,200, and, in this case, some jewellery, which are two rings and one pair of earrings.  

3.  The victim here, Madam Fung is 43 years old.  She was working as a cashier at a restaurant in Yuen Long.  After she had finished work on 21 August, at about 15 minutes past midnight she was walking home along Tai Tong Road.  You both approached her from behind and tried to snatch her handbag. However, while you, D1, tried to snatch her handbag she held onto it with both hands.  However, she lost her balance and fell onto the ground.  When she was on the ground D2, you then hit her head and kicked her at her stomach, allowing D1 to finally snatch the handbag. After which you both fled.  Quite fortunately there were other people at the vicinity who witnessed your robbery on Madam Fung.  One of them was an off-duty police officer.  They then chased after you both. 

4.  Very shortly after, D1, you were apprehended by one of the eye-witnesses.  At that time the handbag was still with you.  Police arrived and you were arrested and cautioned.  You admitted you robbed Madam Fung of her handbag because you did not have any money.  Both you and D2 knew she was a cashier and believed she would have a lot of money.  Therefore you decided to rob her.     

5.  You had both waited for her to come out of the restaurant, and your task, D1, was to snatch the handbag whist D2’s was to hit Madam Fung.  Another passer-by who had chased you originally had found D2 hiding inside a bush along Ma Tong Road.  He informed police officers, and they soon arrived with the victim.  She identified D2 as one of the persons who robbed her.

6.  D2 you were arrested and cautioned.  You admitted that you kicked the victim several times.  In a subsequent interview, under caution, D2, you admitted much the same as D1 admitted. 

7.  Madam Fung sustained abrasions at her left elbow and was treated at the Pok Oi Hospital. 

8.  Defendants, you both have legal representation today.  Mr Booth represents you, 1st defendant, and Mr Delaney represents you, 2nd defendant.  They have made very forceful persuasive mitigation on your behalf, and I have taken into account all they have had to say when deciding what is the most appropriate sentence. 

9.  What is, first of all, common to you both is that you are both of ethnic origin, 1st defendant Nepalese, 2nd defendant Pakistani.  You both came to Hong Kong when you were very young, however, clearly both of you have not had much education at all.  Both of you have had at least one parent abandon you, 1st defendant, your mother, 2nd defendant, your father, when you were very young, leaving each parent respectively to look after you on their own.  1st defendant, your father works, so therefore had little time to look after you or supervise you.  2nd defendant, your mother was on CSSA, unemployed, but still was unable to properly supervise you.  Both parents are here today and show great concern for you.

10.  D1, you are 15 years of age, and despite your young age have unfortunately racked up a long list of convictions.  Your first brush with the law was in 2007, which was a criminal damage charge, and you were given a superintendent’s discretion.  In 2008 you had two offences of theft, attempted theft, for which you were sentenced to a probation order for 18 months, and to reside at the Tuen Mun Juvenile & Children’s Home for the first eight months.  You were discharged from the home in July 2009.  Unfortunately, in November 2009, you ran away from home.  The probation order was supposed to expire on 24 May 2010.  However, by that time you had still not returned home and were still missing. 

11.  On 28 February 2011 you returned home, and your father immediately brought you to the police station on 1 March 2011.  You were brought to the court for breach of your probation order.  However, no order was made by the court on 22 March 2011.  You continued to live your wayward life thereafter.  Although you continued to live with your father you did not stop mingling with your undesirable peers and started to toy with drugs.  By 6 August you had committed an offence of going equipped for stealing.  After this offence you father tried to render strict supervision on you.  However, he was defeated. Then you committed this offence of robbery in August.  However, by September 2011, on 26 September, you were sentenced to the drug addiction treatment centre.  Therefore you have been remanded in custody since then.  Approximately three months have passed. 

12.  Prior to sentencing you, 1st defendant, I called for a drug addiction treatment centre report, detention centre report, a rehabilitation centre report, training centre report and YOAP report, Young Offenders Assessment Panel Report.  Those reports are all before me, which I have read and which Mr Booth tells me he’s read and explained the contents to you and you understand the contents.  Mr Booth has asked me to follow the recommendation that you be sentenced to a drug addiction treatment centre once again. 

13.  He recognises, rightly so, this is a very serious offence.  However, he asked the court to take into account your extreme youth, aged 15, the unfortunate background which you have and are in, having really only been educated for two years here between 2004 and 2006, and having no skills or education almost at all.  Furthermore, Mr Booth has referred me to the officer at the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre, Mr Mak, who has said that you have adjusted well and managed to maintain a clear disciplinary record whilst there.  And intensive counselling has been rendered in order to help you develop deeper insight to your misdeeds, and you have responded positively.  He told us that you have been polite and frank in your attitude, and in circumstances of your drug dependency that a term in the treatment centre will be the most appropriate and beneficial sentence to you.

14.  This is a very serious offence, defendant.  I mentioned on the last occasion if you were an adult you would be looking at at least 4 years imprisonment or so after trial.  However, I must look into matters which balance rehabilitation as well as punishment for you.  Quite clearly you have had little or no education nor supervision almost your entire life.  You began associating with undesirable peers at a very young age, which has led you into a lot of trouble already.  This led you into taking drugs.  With drugs you will have no life.  Therefore it is important to nip this dependency in the bud as soon as possible. 

15.  I fully understand that it is unusual for the court to impose another drug addiction treatment centre order on you, however I find that there are very exceptional facts applicable to you.  Given the extreme youth and particular background of you, defendant, I consider the most appropriate sentence for you and for your rehabilitation is to continue to send you to the drug addiction treatment centre. 

16.  1st defendant, you will be sentenced to the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre, and that order shall commence from today. 

17.  2nd Defendant, you are 19 years of age and have three previous convictions: in August 2010 you had a conviction for possession of offensive weapon in a public place, for which you were sentenced to 2 weeks’ imprisonment; on 30 November 2010 wounding, to which you were bound over; and on 16 September 2011 you were sentenced to a training centre for robbery offence, which I am told by Mr Delaney was committed in March 2011.  You were granted bail for that offence in April.  For this offence, therefore, you committed this present robbery on bail for the robbery you committed in March. Mr Delaney rightly points out that of course is an aggravating factor.

18.  Mr Delaney has made very forceful and helpful mitigation on your behalf in asking this court to make a further order of detention in a training centre upon you.  Like D1, you rely upon the fact that you have received little or no education at all.  In fact in your case you did not receive any formal education until you were 13 years of age.  You received education for about five years, to which you did not even complete Primary 6.

19.  Not surprisingly, having received no previous education, you had encountered many difficulties in catching up to the school curriculum, paid little attention in class, and paid little effort to your studies, eventually mixing with dubious peers at an early age.  Being unable and with no interest in completing your studies, you therefore dropped out or quit school in 2009.  You then commenced your criminal livelihood and committed those offences as I've mentioned.  Mr Delaney has urged me to take into account the fact that you are a young man and you were influenced by others in committing offences. 

20.  You are, at the present time, in your circumstance incapable of integrating and benefiting from society as you have little skills or education.  By sentencing you, in effect, to training centre this will teach you some skills, and there is discipline there to which you will learn.  This will hopefully mould you into a better person, a more mature person, and give you a chance to obtain a job when eventually you are released from training centre.

21.  I shall not repeat what I said to D1 about the seriousness of this offence.  D1, you are in a much worse situation as you have a previous offence of robbery.  The usual sentence for you would be one of an immediate imprisonment now despite your young age of 19.  I am persuaded by your counsel, Mr Delaney, however, that there are exceptional factors in your case.  I am prepared to take an exceptional course.  This will be your very last chance, defendant. I do hope that you will take an opportunity and chance given to you to reform yourself, learn some skills and become a good citizen.

22.  Defendant you are suitable for training in a training centre, in those circumstances I shall sentence you to training in a training centre.  And that order shall commenced from today.

23.  Defendants, both of you do not want to spend your life in prison.  You do not want to spend your life dependent on drugs.  Drugs give you a short time of euphoria or ecstasy and a long term of misery.  They ruin your life.  It is high time that you both turn a new leaf and learn some skills and become good citizens and earn a decent leaving from proper means and not from illegal means.  If money is made fast or quickly or easily it is usually by illegal means.  That is not the way to obtain money.  Contrary to what you think, people work hard to make a proper decent living.  You will have much time to think about this in the coming year, and I sincerely hope you do so.