|
DCCC366/2010
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONGSPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 366 OF 2010
----------------------
----------------------
|
Before:
|
H H Judge Longley
|
|
Date:
|
13 August 2010 at 3.05 pm
|
|
Present:
|
Mr Lenny Cheng Sin-tsing, PP, of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr Sher Hon-piu, instructed by Messrs Lam, Lee & Lai, assigned by the Director of Legal Aid, for the Defendant
|
|
Offence:
|
(1) & (2) Burglary (入屋犯法罪)
|
---------------------
Reasons for Sentence
---------------------
1. Lau Chi-man, you pleaded guilty to two charges of burglary.
2. Both offences took place at night in the same premises, a food court on the 8th floor of the Dragon Centre in Yen Chow Street, Sham Shui Po.
3. At that time, the food court was undergoing renovation and had been surrounded by plywood hoarding. While the main doors to the food court had been secured, it appears from what your counsel has told me in mitigation that there was a door to a rear staircase on the ground floor which had not been locked and which led up to the 8th floor.
4. On 29 November last year, you entered the staircase and went up to the food court and stole two rolls of electric wire. You took those rolls of wires from the premises and sold them to a recycling shop in Tsuen Wan.
5. Four nights later, on 3 December, you returned and stole six copper pipes. You took three of them away from the building that night and sold them to a recycling shop. You hid the other three at a rear staircase, intending to retrieve them later.
6. It was when you returned to the building on the night of 5 December in order to collect the remaining three pipes that you were stopped by the police. You were in possession of a pair of gloves, two pairs of pliers, a screwdriver and a nylon bag.
7. Following your arrest, you admitted your involvement in the earlier burglaries.
8. The value of the pipes and the wire that had been stolen was $4,300. You yourself had received $1,200 from the recycling shop.
9. I bear in mind that had it not been for your admissions, the police might not have been able to charge you with these two particular burglaries.
10. I also bear in mind that although you have been convicted of two burglaries, the burglaries were connected and they were of the same premises.
11. While there may have been a degree of opportunism when you committed the first burglary, that cannot be said of the second occasion when you returned to the premises.
12. You are not a man of previous good character. Indeed, you have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment for four offences, either of burglary or attempted burglary, in the past. Those sentences have not deterred you from repeating the offence.
13. I see no reason to depart from the normal starting point of 2½ years’ imprisonment for offences of burglary of non-domestic premises.
14. The principal mitigation in your case are your pleas of guilty, for which you are entitled to the usual discount of one-third.
15. There is one other mitigating factor in this case. I have been told by your counsel that prior to today you have given money to your mother to make restitution on your behalf. As your mother appears not to be available or contactable today, your sister today has made a payment of $4,300 to the victim company, Bright Light Engineering Company Limited, on your behalf. Presumably she will obtain reimbursement from the money that you have given your mother.
16. I am prepared to reflect the restitution that has been made on your behalf by a further 2 month reduction in sentence.
17. I sentence you to 18 months’ imprisonment on each charge, to run concurrently. That is a total sentence of 18 months.
| |
P.K.M Longley |
| |
District Court Judge |
|