YUEN WING-WAH v. THE QUEEN

CACC000652/1976

  

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL	1976 No. 652
	(Criminal)

  

BETWEEN:
	YUEN Wing-wah	Appellant
	and
	THE QUEEN	Respondent

Coram: Briggs, C.J. , Pickering, J.A. & McMullin, J.

Date of Judgment: 27th October, 1976.

  

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JUDGMENT

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1. The appellant was found guilty of three counts of robbery and sentenced to three terms of imprisonment of six years each, the sentences to be served concurrently. He appeals against his conviction and against the sentences.

2. Before us, the appellant represented himself in his appeal against conviction but was represented by counsel in his appeal against the sentences.

3. In each of the three cases of robbery the appellant produced a knife and threatened his victim, and in each case his personal jewellery and some money was obtained from the victim. The evidence on which the appellant was convicted largely consisted of confessional statements made by himself to the police after caution.

4. When he appeared before us he contented himself with asking the question whether it was usual after a person had been arrested by the police and certain articles had been found upon him, that he should be charged before those articles had been shown to the witnesses who are to be called in the case, to discover whether those articles were the property of the witnesses. In the event there was ample evidence on the record which, if believed, was enough to convict the appellant of these three offences and we dismiss his appeal against conviction.

5. Mr. Singh, who appeared on behalf of the appellant, produced a list of cases of a similar nature to this appeal and these cases show that the usual tariff for such cases is between four and five years' imprisonment and he, indeed, produced several cases tried in 1976 where the sentence of six years had been imposed which this Court had reduced to four years.

6. The appellant has a long record and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for robbery in 1973. However, we think that the sentence of six years' imprisonment in respect of what may be described as three 'run of the mill' street robberies, albeit a weapon being used, is too high and we will reduce each of the three sentences to four years' imprisonment, the sentences to be served concurrently.

  

  

	(Geoffrey Briggs)
	President

  

Representation:

Nahar Singh (D.L.A) for Appellant.

M. Lucas for the Crown/Respondent.