THE QUEEN v. CHEUNG WO PING AND ANOTHER

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JUDGMENT

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Mayo JA giving the judgment of the Court:

1. Both applicants pleaded guilty to robbery and being in Hong Kong without the authority of the Director of Immigration. They were sentenced to a total of 4 years and 2 months' imprisonment and now seek leave to appeal against the sentences imposed.

2. The facts are all too distressingly familiar. The victim of the robbery was using the public toilet facilities at Chater Garden in Central. While leaving he was approached by two men. One of the men produced a razor blade and they informed him that he was being robbed. A1 took the victim's wallet from his pocket and extracted all the cash from it which amounted to about $120. The wallet was then returned and the men fled from the scene.

3. When the victim came out from the toilet he saw a police officer and reported the robbery to him. The officer used his beat radio to inform other officers in the vicinity of what had transpired. Two other police officers on duty saw two men who answered to the description they had been given and they stopped the men and asked them to produce their identity cards. The men in question were A1 and A2. They admitted that they were illegal immigrants. The officers brought them back to the scene of the crime and the victim identified the applicants as being the men who had robbed him.

4. Her Honour Judge Beeson adopted 5 years as the starting point for the robbery and 15 months for the immigration offence and gave the usual 1/3 discounts for the pleas. She ordered that the sentences be served consecutively.

5. The sentences were perfectly proper sentences and the applications are dismissed.