Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Retrospectivity of sentencing guidelines

Legal area

Court

28 Sept 2018

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE v. WONG KAN YUEN

Citation

[2018] HKCFA 43
Court

Court of Final Appeal
Case number

FACC13/2018

The Court allowed the appeals because although the magistrate erred and custodial sentences were justified, the Court of Appeal erred by applying the new post-Wong Chi Fung sentencing guidelines retrospectively when fixing custodial terms and by failing to address the effect of section 109A for young offenders; consequently the Court of Final Appeal set aside the Court of Appeal's imprisonment terms and substituted sentences equivalent to time already served, holding that s81A permits review but not retrospective application of new, harsher guidelines and that age for s109A is measured at dat…
28 Sept 2018

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE v. KWOK YIU CHEONG

Citation

[2018] HKCFA 43
Court

Court of Final Appeal
Case number

FACC12/2018

Court allowed appeals: Court of Appeal was entitled to review magistrate's manifestly inadequate community service orders but erred by applying the new Wong Chi Fung (CA) sentencing guidelines retrospectively and failed to have regard to the protective/mitigating effect of youth under s109A in a conceptual way; therefore Court of Appeal's increased custodial sentences were set aside and substituted with imprisonment terms equal to time already served.
28 Sept 2018

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE v. YIM MAN WA

Citation

[2018] HKCFA 43
Court

Court of Final Appeal
Case number

FACC7/2018

The magistrate had erred in principle and imposed manifestly inadequate community service orders given the violent scale of the unlawful assembly and lack of genuine remorse, so a custodial sentence was justified under s81A; however the Court of Appeal unlawfully relied on the new Wong Chi Fung (CA) guidelines (applied retroactively) in fixing the quantum of imprisonment and failed to record consideration of s109A for appellants who were youths at the time of offending; accordingly the CA sentences of imprisonment were set aside and replaced with custodial sentences equivalent to time already…

Hong Kong Case Law

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE v. WONG KAN YUEN

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE v. KWOK YIU CHEONG

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE v. YIM MAN WA