10 Aug 1988
THE QUEEN v. SO MAN KING
- Citation
- THE QUEEN v. SO MAN KING
- Court
- Court of First Instance
- Case number
- HCMA408/1988
The appropriate sentencing guideline for offences under Section 38(1) is generally 15 months' imprisonment for most cases to achieve deterrence, but the court must take into account mitigation including voluntary surrender, humanitarian grounds and prolonged executive non-enforcement; where applicants had been led to expect non-enforcement by established policy a substantial reduction is proper — accordingly the court affirmed an 18-month sentence for a repeat offender but reduced sentences to 6 months for first-time offenders arrested pursuant to a sudden policy change.