4 Sept 2025
The Court held the 7-year starting point and the 37% discount (including the one-third guilty plea discount) were appropriate; remand credit is an administrative matter for the Correctional Services Department under s67A(1) Cap 221 and not for the sentencing court to determine; accordingly the application for leave to appeal against sentence was refused.
23 Mar 2022
The High Court held the conviction was safe because the trial judge's acceptance of prosecution witnesses and CCTV evidence, together with the appellant's own statement, were supported by the record and not perverse; the appellant's claim of forgetfulness due to mental disorder lacked expert evidence and was insufficient to rebut intent. However, because the appellant had been remanded for over three months, the fine imposed was inappropriate; the Court substituted the fine with a three‑day custodial sentence, to be fully credited against time already served on remand.
5 Mar 2020
Remand time already credited to an earlier sentence cannot be credited a second time; remand credit is for the CSD to apply and is not deducted by the court when imposing a later unrelated sentence; the magistrate's imposition of 14 months for unlawful remaining was within her sentencing discretion and not excessive, so the appeal fails.
29 Apr 2014
The Court found the guilty plea was voluntary and informed because counsel communicated sufficiently (Mandarin adequate), the appellant was dishonest about key facts and knew her true identity, repeated use of false documents justified raising the sentencing starting point to 18 months, the aggregate sentence of 16 months was appropriate and one month of remand was not to be deducted; consequently the application to withdraw the plea and the sentence appeal were dismissed and costs awarded to the prosecution.
11 Aug 2009
The appeal was allowed in part because the appellant suffered prejudice when 112 days in custody for a related, earlier proceeding were not taken into account; the court reduced the sentences to reflect that remand period and to achieve a just totality, imposing 8 months on each charge with 2 months of the second sentence to run consecutive, for an overall term of 10 months imprisonment.
8 Sept 2006
Leave out of time was granted and both sentences were reduced to give full credit for periods of remand including periods previously applied to convictions later quashed; first appellant's sentence reduced to 3 years 2 months 28 days (earliest release 27 November 2006) and second appellant's sentence reduced to 3 years 4 months 27 days (earliest release 8 January 2007).
8 Sept 2006
Under section 67A CPO the appellants were entitled to have remand time previously applied to convictions later quashed treated as reducing their conspiracy sentences; the court therefore reduced the sentences and adjusted earliest release dates to give full effect to that remand time.
23 Jun 2004
The application for leave to appeal was dismissed because the record showed the prior remand had already been taken into account in earlier proceedings and there was no fault by counsel in the District Court; the appeal was frivolous and an order was made excluding four months from reckoning as part of the sentence under s83W.
3 Feb 2000
Given the facts (CCTV evidence, admission), the applicant's prior convictions, and the judge's lawful exercise of sentencing discretion (30 months starting point with one-third guilty plea discount to 20 months), the sentence was not excessive; the application for leave to appeal against sentence is dismissed and the court orders that 2 months of time spent in custody will not count towards the sentence because the application was devoid of merit.
6 Jul 1999
The Court held that the proved circumstantial facts—emergence from the vicinity of the point of origin, expert opinion that the fire was likely deliberately started, possession of a lighter, inconsistent explanations and excited behaviour—constituted compelling and uncontradicted evidence permitting the judge to infer guilt; the conviction was therefore upheld and the application dismissed.