HKSAR v. ORIAKHI OJE

 DCCC333/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 333 OF 2009

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Reasons for Sentence 

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1.  Defendant, you pleaded guilty to one offence of dealing with property known or believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable offence, that is contrary to section 25(1) and (3) of the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, Cap.455, and one offence of procuring the making of an entry in a record of a bank by deception, contrary to section 18D of the Theft Ordinance, Cap.210, and a further offence that was ordered to be left on file and not to be proceeded with without the leave of this court or the Court of Appeal.

2.  You admitted the brief facts and I convicted you.

3.  The facts were as follows. 

4.  In respect of Charge 1, you opened a savings account with Hongkong and Shanghai Bank with an initial deposit of $1,000.  You presented a Ghanaian passport in the name of Inusah Shafiu and an address of 4th Floor, 131 Tai Nan Street, Mongkok.  You signed the particulars.

5.  Between 3 March 2005 and 4 August 2005, a total of $108,259.82 was deposited into the account.  Sometimes there were several deposits on the same day.  As of 31 December 2006, there was $86,731.06 in that account.

6.  Since mid 2007, you had been attempting to withdraw money over the counter at the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank but the bank refused.

7.  In March 2008, you had your solicitors write to the bank enclosing a letter of authorisation purportedly from Shafiu.  It was alleged that all the deposits into that account belonged to you.  It was alleged that Shafiu had never used that account which was controlled by you.  Again, the bank refused your request.

Charge 3

8.  On 9 March 2005, a male opened a savings account with the Bank of China with a deposit of $100.  He gave the address of the 4th Floor, 131 Tai Nan Street, Mongkok.  He signed it.  Your palm print was on the account opening form.

9.  Between 9 March 2005 and 26 August 2005, $731,313.78 was deposited and an almost identical sum withdrawn.

10.  On 13 January this year you were arrested, interviewed under caution.  You admitted opening the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank account in another name.  You said the bank allowed you to do this.  You said your father sent you money via remittance agents from the United Kingdom and these sums were deposited into that account.  You denied any knowledge of the Bank of China account.

11.  You admitted one conviction comprising four counts.  This was subsequent to the commission of the present offences, therefore at the time of committing the present two offences you are to be regarded as of clear record.

12.  Miss Shine entered mitigation on your behalf.  She told me that you are 32 years of age, you come from Nigeria, and you had come to Hong Kong in April 2004 unlawfully.  You had been refused asylum by the UNHCR but had lodged a claim under the Convention Against Torture.  She told me that matter had not yet been resolved. 

13.  She said that you had come in contact with Inusah Shafiu at Chung King Mansions.  He had allowed you to reside at the address in Mongkok.  You had been unable to open a bank account as you had no ID Card and no passport so Shafiu allowed you to use his Ghanaian passport on 2 March 2005.  He also allowed you to use the funds from the account to live on and to pay medical expenses.  In total, you had had $21,528.06 during that period, that period being 2 March 2005 to 5 August 2005.

14.  The conviction and offences took place after this date so you had a clear record at this time.  Miss Shine said that you had no direct knowledge of the victim.  You consented to the prosecution’s application for $81,000 to be extracted from the account and returned to the victim, who is a Canadian citizen.

15.  Referring to Charge 3, Miss Shine said that you simply agreed to open the Bank of China account for Shafiu and had no knowledge of how it was to be used.  You did not ask and you were not told.  You had obtained no direct benefit from that offence.

16.  She told me that you had been in custody since your arrest on 13 January 2009.

17.  I turn now to the actual sentence.

18.  Money laundering and the misuse of bank accounts are serious and prevalent offences in Hong Kong.  The victim in respect of the 1st charge is a Canadian citizen, of whom I accept you had no knowledge.  Nonetheless, this gives the charge an international dimension that affects Hong Kong’s standing as a centre of honesty.  I note that without objection HK$81,000 is to be returned to the victim.  Also, I note that on the commission of each of these offences you were a person of clear record.

19.  It would seem that as a result of the two offences you obtained just over $21,000 and was provided with accommodation by Shafiu.  In respect of Charge 3, you obtained no actual benefit.

20.  As we all so often see in these cases, you were but a cog in a wheel of deception, not a major part.  However, without the cogs these schemes could not operate. 

21.  These offences must attract immediate prison sentences, of that there is no doubt.

22.  The 1st charge involved some $108,000; the 3rd charge, one where you opened the account and left it to Shafiu to operate, secure in the knowledge that something criminal would take place, here the sum was about $730,000 which passed through that account.

23.  There are two distinct charges.  However, it seems to me that in reality this is a course of conduct with actions of very similar criminal behaviour, therefore my approach has been to take an overall view of the criminality of the situation.

24.  In all the circumstances, I take a starting point of 3 years’ imprisonment.  That will be reduced to 2 years for your plea of guilty.  Therefore, you will go to prison for 2 years on each of these offences, to be run concurrently - a total of 2 years.

25.  I confirm the order that I made yesterday, that the $81,000 is to be withdrawn from your account and returned to the victim.