HUI CHI-KI v. THE QUEEN

CACC000706/1976

  

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
	1976 No. 706
	(Criminal)

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BETWEEN
	HUI Chi-ki	Appellant
	and
	THE QUEEN	Respondent

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Coram: Pickering, Ag. Chief Justice, McMullin, Ag. J.A. and Leonard, J.

Date of Judgment: 20 August 1976.

  

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JUDGMENT

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1. The appellant sought leave to appeal against both his conviction and sentences on two charge of blackmail each of which was accompanied by a charge of theft of the sums he extorted. The appellant had been charged with 15 counts of blackmail and a corresponding number of counts of theft.

2. The only evidence against him in respect of 11 of these incidents was his own cautioned statement. This was ruled admissible by the learned trial judge. We considered rightly so. It tended to show that the appellant approached the operators of a number of cooked food stalls at North Point and offered to act as "watchman" for them in each case the offer being accompanied by a veiled threat as to what might happen if they refused to "employ" him. The Crown did not call all the proprietors or operators of the cooked food stalls in question. Only one of them was called. He gave evidence of two incidents each of which involved a threat and the obtaining of money by means of it. Although the learned trial judge had no doubt that the contents of the appellant's statement (which involved him in 13 other incidents on which 26 charges were based) Were true he was not prepared to convict on the contents of that statement alone so that he acquitted the appellant in respect of those 26 charges and found him guilty of 4 charges. There was no merit whatsoever in the appellant's application to appeal against the convictions and we do not propose to say more than that that application is dismissed.

3. The appellant was sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment on each of the charges of which he was found guilty the sentences to be concurrent. We consider that this application for leave to appeal against these sentences must be allowed. In giving reasons for sentence the learned trial judge observed that the victim of the two incidents "Mr. TSE Shing was obviously a frightened man as a result of the systematic pressure he had been subjected to by the defendant including the threats which had been made either implicitly or explicitly". The behaviour of the appellant clearly was systematic but we consider that the learned trial judge may have been influenced by the number of the incidents mentioned in the appellant's statement in respect of which the appellant had been acquitted. The appellant is 23 years old. He had been twice convicted of offences in connection with dangerous drugs; had been to the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre but had never been sent to prison. There was no suggestion that he had had any connection with triad activity and no violence to the person was involved in this case. In these circumstances and having regard to another application for leave to appeal against sentence heard by us today in which triad activities were involved we consider the sentence here to be excessive and allow the application reducing the sentence to one of three years' imprisonment on each charge the sentences to be concurrent.

  

Representation: