HKSAR v. Gulapa Adelaida

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO. 246 OF 1998

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J U D G M E N T

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1. The Appellant appeals against sentences imposed in the Magistracy on charges of Theft (a shoplifting) and a breach of a Deportation Order. In respect of the charge of theft she was sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment and in respect of the breach of Deportation Order she was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment; the Magistrate ordered that those sentences ran concurrently.

2. The Magistrate adopted 18 months as the starting point for his sentence on the breach of Deportation Order; this was the third breach of a deportation order by this Appellant. She had 6 other aliases by which she was known in Hong Kong and they appear on her Criminal Record Summary. The theft was a serious shoplifting involving a large quantity of shirts taken from a chain store in Hong Kong. It appears from her record and antecedents that this Appellant comes to Hong Kong for the purposes of theft.

3. The sentences are entirely proper. I see no reason to interfere with the Magistrate's sentence in either case and in fact I add 2 months to the sentence in respect of the Theft to be consecutive to the other sentence. This is an entirely unmeritorious appeal; it is dismissed.