Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Hong Kong Case Law

Knowledge of theft vs smuggling
  • 16 Nov 1995

    R. v. KWAN WAI-HUNG & OTHER

    Citation
    R. v. KWAN WAI-HUNG & OTHER
    Court
    Court of Appeal
    Case number
    CACC143/1995

    The conviction of D3 could not stand because the trial judge was wrong to hold that the only possible inference from recent possession and the surrounding circumstances was that the defendant knew the goods were stolen; an alternative and at least equally likely inference of knowledge that the goods were smuggled existed, so the conviction was quashed and the applicant discharged. Separately, the two-year sentence for D1 was appropriate and, when ordered consecutive to the existing six-year robbery sentence, produced an overall totality (eight years) that the Court would not disturb.