HKSAR v. LEE YEUNG PAN

DCCC158/2011

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 158 OF 2011

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Lee Yeung-pan, you have been convicted, on your own pleas, of two charges of robbery and one charge of indecent assault.

2.  The two offences or robbery took place within a week of each other in the same building in Hong Ning Road, Kwun Tong, where you yourself were living.  The victims of both robbery offences were young women who were on their own and walking from their homes downs the staircase of the building in the morning.  Both robberies involved coming up behind the young women and grabbing them. 

3.  On the first occasion, which is the subject of Charge 1, you grabbed the victim’s neck from behind and pushed her onto the floor.  You then snatched her handbag containing the items referred to in the charge.

4.  On the second occasion, which is the subject of the 2nd charge, you rushed out and covered the victim’s mouth from behind.  You then rubbed her private parts with your hand.  She put up resistance, but you then snatched her handbag containing the items referred to in the charge and ran off.  The rubbing of the victim’s private parts in the course of the second robbery is the subject of the charge of indecent assault.

5.  You were arrested approximately a month later.  When you were arrested you admitted the offences and you claimed that you had rubbed the private parts of the victim of the second robbery in order to distract her so you could steal her handbag. 

6.  I bear in mind that no weapons were used by you to effect the robberies, and that they were committed during the daytime, not at night.  I also bear in mind that there is no suggestion that the victim suffered any injuries as a result. 

7.  Nonetheless, these were robberies of women who were on their own on the staircase leading from their homes.  These were not cases where you simply snatched their handbags and ran.  In each case you attacked them from behind before you snatched their bag.  In the first robbery you pushed the victim to the ground.  The circumstances of the second robbery are aggravated by the indecent assault during the course of the robbery. 

8.  I bear in mind that you are a young man of previous good character.  You have a good employment record.  You come obviously from a very supportive family and have a girlfriend with whom you were living in a flat owned by your parents in the same building.  On the last occasion Mr Leung, your solicitor, told me that your family were very puzzled as to why you should have committed these offences.  I, too, found it hard to understand why, given your background, you should commit these offences on these two occasions.  Bearing in mind that you lived in the same building, the chance of you being recognised again by these victims was very high.  It was for that reason that I called for a background report. 

9.  It appears, having read the report, that your motive in committing these offences was simply because you found yourself temporarily unable to pay your debts, and in particular a debt of around $30,000 on your credit card.  Instead of asking for help from those who would have helped you out, you turned to robbery.  These were serious offences, and particularly the robberies, and for that reason I am bound to adopt a starting point of 3 years' imprisonment on each of the robbery charges, and also a starting point of 6 months on the charge of indecent assault. 

10.  You have, however, pleaded guilty, and are entitled to the usual discount of one-third. 

11.  On the 1st charge I am sentencing you to 2 years' imprisonment.  On the 2nd charge, 2 years’ imprisonment, 6 months of which are to run consecutively to the sentence on Charge 1.  And on Charge 3, the charge of indecent assault, I sentence you to 4 months’ imprisonment, which are to run consecutively to the sentences on Counts 1 and 2. 

12.  The total sentence, therefore, is 2 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.