HKSAR v. TSUI MAN LEUNG

HCMA643/98

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO. 643 OF 1998

(On appeal from KTC917 of 1998)

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J U D G M E N T

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1. The appellant, TSUI Man-leung, was convicted after trial by Mrs Julia Livesey, Permanent Magistrate, sitting at Kwun Tong Magistracy in May of this year, of an offence of offering for sale 1,864 pirated video CD discs. Sentence was passed on 2 June 1998, and for his offence the appellant was ordered to serve a period of 6 months' imprisonment. He now appeals that sentence.

2. He has previous convictions, but not for similar offences. One is for theft, one for gambling in a public place and one for fighting in a public place. These were committed when he was a teenager, he is now, I believe, 24.

3. Originally, he didn't appeal sentence, he appealed his conviction. He abandoned his appeal against conviction before me on Wednesday of this week and applied for leave to appeal sentence. I granted him that leave and adjourned the hearing to today.

4. The facts of the case are very simple and all too common. The appellant, looking for easy money, managed a stall in an arcade where pirated CD discs were freely offered for sale. He full well knew what he was selling. He knew that he was selling illegal items and that they were pirated CD discs.

5. It is well-recognised that the piracy of CD discs, both video CD discs and computer discs, is an enormous problem in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has gained the unenviable reputation among all major trading nations in the world, both in the West and in the East, of being a centre both for the production and supply of these illegal items. This is causing tremendous difficulties in relation to Hong Kong's trading relations, with its major international customers. It could possibly lead to major trading countries such as the United States and the European Union imposing economic sanctions upon Hong Kong. That would severely affect Hong Kong's economy, and the tragedy would be that it was caused by young men such as the appellant, who has never been able to hold down a proper job in his life.

6. Clearly, the courts of Hong Kong cannot stand by and allow young men like the appellant to adversely affect its trading interests. The courts recognised as long ago as 1995 that sentences of imprisonment are the only way of dealing with those who choose to commit this offence.

7. Bearing in mind that the amount of pirated CD discs being offered for sale by the appellant was close to 2,000, there is nothing in this appeal which indicates that Mrs Julia Livesey's sentence was contrary to principle or manifestly excessive. I am not dealing with a young man who was selling two or three pirate copies from a shoe box in the street.

8. Mrs Livesey was clearly correct to have an immediate custodial sentence in mind and to impose one, and the length of it is perfectly correct. The appeal against sentence is dismissed.