HKSAR v. FUNG WAI KWONG

DCCC 1093/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 1093 OF 2012

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Fung Wai-kwong, you have been convicted on your own plea of one charge of handling stolen goods.

2.  The charge of handling stolen goods relates to a stolen light goods vehicle and its contents which you and a man called Nip Man-yui were seen loading outside commercial premises in Sha Tsui Road, Tsuen Wan, in the early hours of 23 May 2011.  The light goods vehicle was used by a laundry company to pick up and deliver goods for laundering. 

3.  Four nights earlier, on the night of the 18th to 19 May 2011, it had been stolen from the place that it had been parked in Wo Yi Hop Road.  When it was stolen it contained 33 bags of towels, one bag of uniforms and six trolleys.  I am told that the vehicle itself was worth $132,000 and the contents were worth $78,700.  Those goods were still in the stolen vehicle in the early hours of 23 May 2011.  The licence plates of the vehicle had been changed.

4.  Also in the stolen vehicle were a number of items which had just been stolen from the commercial premises outside of which the stolen vehicle was then parked.  Those items consisted of a forklift, a barrel and two barrels filled with scrap metal, collectively worth $3,800.  In the vehicle were copper wire and other items worth $45,200 stolen from the Yuen Fat Recycling Company on 21 May.

5.  Bearing in mind the value of the stolen goods that you were handling, the fact that they were stolen on three occasions and that you were in the course of handling goods that had just been stolen from the premises outside of which the vehicle was parked, I am of the view that the appropriate starting point in this case is 3½ years’ imprisonment.  You are entitled to the usual discount of one-third to reflect your plea of guilty, which would result in a sentence of 28 months’ imprisonment.

6.  You are a man with a long record including offences of dishonesty and are now serving a sentence of imprisonment for which at the earliest you will not be released until 16 June 2014, 15 months from now. 

7.  The sentences of 32 months’ imprisonment passed on you on 23 March 2012 and 2 years’ imprisonment imposed on you on 25 June 2012 were passed on you after you had committed the offence now before the court and after you had been arrested for this offence. 

8.  You wrote to the police on 6 June 2012, just before the matters came up on 25 June 2012, asking that this matter could be hastened so that all outstanding matters could be disposed of.  However, when this matter did come before the District Court you indicated that you would plead not guilty to this offence.  However, it is also right to bear in mind the time that has elapsed since you committed this offence and the offences you are now serving. 

9.  Taking those matters into account, I sentence you to 28 months’ imprisonment but I order that 12 months of that sentence run consecutively to the sentences you are now serving, so the effect of that is that you are sentenced to an extra 12 months imprisonment.