Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Precedent and sentencing guidelines

Legal area

Court

7 Oct 1999

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE v. LAM CHI WAH

Citation

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE v. LAM CHI WAH
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CAAR4/1999

The respondent, a repeat offender who had escalated to wholesaling large quantities of counterfeit goods and who had previously received a suspended sentence, should have received an immediate custodial sentence because the mitigation did not constitute sufficiently strong extraneous circumstances; the district court sentences were wrong in principle and manifestly inadequate, and were replaced with concurrent custodial terms totaling six months for the principal offence.
13 Aug 1996

R. v. LI MING YIU

Citation

R. v. LI MING YIU
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCMA834/1996

The magistrate's method of reducing starting terms for totality was incorrect; having assessed aggravating and mitigating factors and the emerging evidence that midazolam misuse is increasing and often accompanies heroin use, the appropriate sentence for possession of 37 mg midazolam is three months imprisonment, to run consecutively to the one month theft sentence; magistrates may have regard to evolving evidence even in absence of Court of Appeal guidelines but may use methaqualone bands as a reference pending appellate guidance.