R. v. WONG PUI KEI

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL

1995, No. 622
(Criminal)

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J U D G M E N T

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Litton, V.-P. (giving the judgment of the Court):

1. This is an application for leave to appeal against sentence.

2. The applicant pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial to two charges before Deputy District Judge Chu and was sentenced to a total of three years' imprisonment. That took place on 8 September 1995. The two charges were : (1) conspiracy to defraud and (2) accepting an advantage contrary to section 4(2)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.

3. The applicant was 25 years old and a Police Constable in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. On the first charge he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years' imprisonment and on the second charge to six months' imprisonment to be served consecutively making a total of three years. The application for leave to appeal is confined to the conspiracy charge.

4. The applicant was the first defendant in the court below. There were altogether seven defendants charged in respect of the conspiracy. The period of the conspiracy was from 1st to 25th March 1994. It involved the use of false credit cards, stolen credit cards and stolen identity cards to obtain goods and services thereby defrauding merchants, banks, credit card companies and credit card-holders.

5. The applicant's participation in the conspiracy was to have driven the conspirators on their shopping expeditions, knowing that counterfeit credit cards would be used. The application for leave to appeal focusses on one point, namely the fact that a person whose name appears on the charge sheet as a co-conspirator, one Michael Lai Chi-keung, had been sentenced to two years' imprisonment by another court in July 1994 in relation to the same conspiracy.

6. Michael Lai Chi-keung, though a named co-conspirator, was not one of the seven defendants on charge 1. That was because he was going to be one of the Crown witnesses. It appears that apart from the conspiracy charge Michael Lai Chi-keung also faced a charge of possessing forged credit cards and another one of handling stolen credit cards and other properties.

7. Before sentencing the applicant the Deputy District Judge had called for a probation report, and in her careful Reasons for Sentence had clearly taken those matters into account. The judge also adverted in her Reasons for Sentence to the treatment of Michael Lai Chi-keung by a different court; in particular to the fact that Lai had pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity, whereas the applicant only changed his plea on the first day of trial.

8. An overwhelming point quite properly taken into account by the Deputy Judge was that at the time of the offence the applicant was a serving police officer. This necessarily makes the offence on his part particularly serious.

9. It is submitted before us by counsel that the sentence of two-and-a-half years' imprisonment on the conspiracy charge is manifestly excessive. We cannot agree. The sentences are well within the range which the Deputy Judge was entitled to impose. This application is accordingly dismissed.