Hong Kong Case Law

22 Jun 2018

HKSAR v. NGUYEN THU HA

Citation

[2018] HKCA 368

Court

Court of Appeal

Case number

CACC376/2017

Leave to appeal was refused because the overall sentence of 27 months was not manifestly excessive: the applicant was a repeat, professional thief who conducted a sustained, high‑value series of offences involving means to defeat detection and accomplices; the judge properly adjusted starting points for aggravating and mitigating factors and applied the guilty plea discount and totality considerations appropriately.

• Theft
• Shoplifting
• Going equipped for theft
• Sentence starting points
• Totality principle
• Guilty plea discount

WONG HING-CHUNG v. THE QUEEN

Citation

WONG HING-CHUNG v. THE QUEEN

Court

Court of Appeal

Case number

CACC450/1971

The appeal was dismissed because the oral statement was properly treated as a spontaneous admission, the written cautioned statement was properly admitted after a voir dire finding of voluntariness, and the certificates of guarantee did not constitute hearsay as the watches themselves were before the court and identification by matching numbers was permissible; any procedural loose wording by the trial judge did not vitiate the convictions.

• Going equipped for theft
• Admissibility of extra-judicial confessions
• Voluntariness of cautioned statements
• Hearsay and identification evidence
• Judicial duty to canvass admissibility