YIU TAK CHUEN v. THE QUEEN

CACC000335/1971

 

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG

(APPELLATE JURISDICTION)

 

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 335 OF 1971

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BETWEEN
	YIU TAK CHUEN	Appellant
	and
	THE QUEEN	Respondent

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Coram: Huggins, J.

Date of Judgment: 14th July, 1971.

 

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JUDGMENT

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1. The Appellant appeals against sentences of eighteen months' imprisonment concurrent on two charges of robbery. He was arrested by the police on suspicion of his involvement in a robbery with which he has never been charged. He was taken to the Police Station and there a watch was found upon him. The police told him that they suspected that he had obtained that watch by unlawful means and under caution the Defendant admitted that it was obtained in the course of a robbery. This robbery had never been reported to the police, but it now appears that he and another man robbed a man when he was returning home at night; that one man had seized him round the neck from behind and another had taken away a watch and $40 in cash. The watch found on the Appellant was identified as the one taken in that robbery. The Appellant went on to admit implication in another robbery, which had been reported to the police. The robbery followed exactly the same course as the one to which the first charged related except that the victim was also punched in the face and that the sum of cash taken was $140.

2. The Appellant has been before the courts on seven previous occasions, on three of them in respect of a multiplicity of offences. His convictions involved larceny, house-breaking, assault with intent to rob and impersonating a police officer. He has twice been put on probation and has received treatment in the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre, this last being upon the only conviction he has had for an offence under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.

3. The learned Magistrate expressly made allowance for the fact that the offences could not have been proved but for the Appellant's own confessions and, having regard to the violence that was used in respect of both offences, I am satisfied that the sentences were entirely proper.

 

14th July, 1971.

 

Representation: