22 Nov 2021
The Court found the HK$4,000 fine to be manifestly excessive given the circumstances and the guilty plea and substituted it with HK$3,000; the Court also held there was no evidence of poor driving skills or other justification for an order to retake the driving test and set that order aside because it amounted to an unjustified additional punitive measure.
6 Mar 2017
The Court upheld the judge's factual assessment and legal approach: the kidnapping was a very serious, meticulously planned cross‑border offence making an 18‑year starting point appropriate; after the full one‑third guilty plea discount the 12‑year sentence was justified, and the application for leave to appeal against sentence was dismissed.
27 Mar 2014
The judge erred by ordering consecutive sentences and by selecting the ICE tariff despite heroin and cocaine comprising the bulk of the narcotic; the correct approach was to aggregate the quantities, adopt the combined approach using the heroin/cocaine tariff for the 22.14g of serious narcotics with a 6 year starting point plus a 6 month uplift for multiple drugs, then reduce for guilty plea to 4 years 4 months; impose identical concurrent sentences on both charges and award costs to the appellant.
7 May 2012
The judge applied established precedent that possession/use of a forged or another's identity card by an illegal immigrant attracts a 15 month starting point where the card was used to obtain a benefit; granted a 5 month reduction for the appellant's guilty plea, resulting in 10 months for that offence, and imposed 10 months for unlawful remaining in Hong Kong to run concurrently. The mitigation advanced did not meet the threshold for further reduction; accordingly the sentence of 10 months concurrent on each count was appropriate and was upheld.
25 Jun 2003
The court refused leave to appeal because the applicant's age, health, family circumstances and assertion of minor role did not justify reducing the sentence and the sentencing judge's exercise of discretion— including a guilty plea reduction to 16 years—was not manifestly excessive or wrong in principle.
19 Nov 1999
The Court held the applicant failed to demonstrate the total sentence was manifestly excessive or wrong in principle: the sentencing judge's starting points were not too high, the 1/3 guilty plea discount was properly applied, and the consecutive one year sentence for using a false instrument was justified because the deception delayed discovery, resulting in an affirmed total sentence of five years imprisonment.
23 Sept 1999
The Court held the Magistrate's sentencing approach and computation were appropriate but allowed the appeal in part on mercy grounds by ordering charge 2 to run concurrently with charge 3, reducing the total effective sentence from 18 months to 14 months because of family circumstances and mitigation not fully presented below.
8 May 1997
For simple possession of an unlicensed firearm the correct starting point after trial is 12 years and, applying the usual discount for a guilty plea, the sentence of 8 years imposed was appropriate; the application for leave to appeal the sentence is dismissed.
26 Mar 1997
The Court held that, given the dangerous nature of the stun gun and converted pistol, the trial judge was entitled to impose the sentences he did after allowing discounts for plea and co‑operation; the sentences were not manifestly excessive or wrong in principle and the application for leave to appeal was dismissed.
4 Dec 1996
The judge erred by imposing consecutive sentences for offences that formed part of the same criminal activity; the correct approach is to fix an overall starting point (here 6 years) and then apply a one-third reduction for the early plea and cooperation, resulting in concurrent sentences of 4 years on each count.