HKSAR v. MOK CHEUK HANG, HENRY

DCCC306/2011

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 306 OF 2011

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, you have pleaded guilty before me to 4 charges. Those 4 charges are: (1) Claiming to be a member of a triad society; (2) Theft; (3) Blackmail; and (4) Blackmail.

2.  The charges relate to a 7-week period, September and October 2009, over which you bullied a 15-year-old boy.  You intimidated him by claiming to be a member of a triad society and you demanded money from him with menaces.  Those menaces being the threat of physical violence. 

3.  The facts were that the victim was a classmate of your younger brother.  He was on 4 September 2009 asked by you to pay you $5,000.  This $5,000 being protection money or settlement money; you were claiming on this occasion that you were a member of a triad society.

4.  Suffice to say that over the next 7 weeks, you repeatedly threatened and intimidated the victim, as a result of which this 15-year-old boy gave you several sums of money: $500 on 16 September; $1,600 on or about 25 September; another $200 on or about 28 September; and a cheque in the sum of $2,000 signed by the victim’s mother on or about 30 September.  Your demands for money continued, and upon your instructions to the victim, he stole his father’s $11,000 watch and passed it to you.  You pawned it.

5.  Let me just pause here.

(Discussion re compensation)

6.  Let me continue.  You pawned the watch.  When we were last here in court 2 weeks ago, I asked your solicitor, Mr Pang, about compensation.  I am told that compensation will be made but has not yet been made. 

7.  Let me continue by outlining the facts. Unsatisfied with the money that you had received to-date you continued to demand money from the victim and, once again, upon your threats of physical violence, the victim took 5 items of gold jewellery from his own home.  You pawned them.  And, once again, I note that the issue of compensation was raised on the last occasion, it has now been offered but it has not yet been paid.

8.  Your demands continued and your next demand led directly to your arrest.  On 19 October 2009 you were arrested by police as a result of a sting or undercover operation in which the victim handed you marked banknotes in a meeting arranged as a result of new threats of physical violence unless you received money. 

9.  After your arrest, I understand that you did co-operate with the police to the extent that you made a full confession and identified the pawn shops.

Your record

10.  In May 2010 you were convicted of 2 triad-related offences, acting as a member of a triad society and separately being a member of a triad society.  As a result of these convictions, you were sentenced to 18 months of probation supervision.

11.  I am told that the date of those 2 offences was 4 August 2009.  The importance of that date is that those 2 offences were before the series of offences for which I will now sentence you. 

12.  I want to turn to the issue of delay.  It is now 2 August 2011.  The events which you have pleaded guilty to took place in September and October 2009.  It would appear from the file that this case first appeared in the Magistrates’ Court in March 2011, and once it got there it moved quickly through the system.

13.  As to what happened to this case or this investigation between your arrest in October 2009 and March 2011, that is a period of 17 months, I have asked the prosecution, Mr Leung, about the delay and I have been given, I think, what can be described as a bureaucratic answer, namely that documents were needed to be obtained from a bank in relation to the $2,000 cheque and they were waiting also for legal advice.

14.  There is of course delay in every case before trial.  The real question is whether there has been unreasonable delay that has not been caused by you, Defendant, and whether any unreasonable delay has contributed to your punishment and whether delay has resulted in unfairness to you.  Without more, I think delay is a feature of this case and I will reflect it in the sentences that I pass. 

15.  Let me turn to your mitigation.  You pleaded guilty.  You are young; you are 21 years old.  You co-operated after your arrest.  I am told now that you are remorseful.  I accept all of those matters.

16.  In mitigation, I was also told that there was in fact no violence, just a show of force, and that these incidents did not, at least on Mr Pang’s submission, take place over a protracted or lengthy period. Let me say this that I note that the bullying, because that is what this case really is, the bullying came to an end when you were arrested, not before.

17.  Your solicitor, Mr Pang, told me in mitigation that your current probation order was working and that there were no major complaints with respect to your performance whilst on probation.  You are just over the age for the training centre.  That is a pity. 

18.  I asked for a report from your current probation officer not with a view to extending your probation but to see what progress you had made, and also to learn more about you from that report.  I also called for a detention centre report.  

19.  Let me turn to those reports which I know have been read and explained to you by Mr Pang.  From the probation officer’s report, it seems that there was a period in which you worked hard, were motivated, had a job and impressed your probation officer.  However, recently you have failed to report to your probation officer on three separate occasions.  You have been issued with a written warning letter about your behaviour and you have breached your curfew on three separate occasions. 

20.  The detention centre report states that you are medically unfit for the detention centre. 

21.  Let me turn to the sentences that I am going to impose.  For Charge 1, claiming to be a member of a triad society, I take a starting point of 12 months.  I reduce that by one-third to reflect your plea, that is, a sentence of 8 months.  For Charge 2, that is theft, I take a starting point of 6 months.  I reduce it by one-third for the plea, that is, 4 months.  For Charge 3, that is blackmail, I take a starting point of 18 months.  To reflect your plea, I reduce that to a period of 12 months.  For Charge 4, blackmail, I take a starting point of 18 months, again reduced to 12 months for your plea. 

Totality

22.  These offences form part and parcel of a series of acts against one victim over 7 weeks.  Given your age, the delay and all the other circumstances of the case, I think it is appropriate that I order that all of these sentences run concurrently with one another.  I have the unenviable task of sending you to prison for the first time, hopefully the last, and the total sentence that I impose upon you is that of 12 months.