HCCC 45/2022

[2024] HKCFI 2986

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 45 OF 2022

________________________

________________________

___________________________________

Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

___________________________________

COURT: The defendant Li Yang was convicted after trial by an unanimous jury verdict for an offence of handling stolen goods, contrary to Section 24(1) and (2) of the Theft Ordinance, Chapter 210 , which involved three handbags, a computer bag and a fur coat worth $31,700.

The facts were that on 24 November 2020, the defendant’s husband “Chan” and two others took part in a robbery in a domestic flat in an estate called One West Kowloon and took various items worth over HK$11,500,000.

On 17 December 2020, a police party armed with a search warrant went to the residence of the defendant, her husband and the husband’s mother. They eventually arrested the defendant and found the stolen items. To be specific, the three handbags were found on a shelf next to the upper bunk bed of the defendant, and the computer bag containing the fur coat was found near a ladder next to the bunk bed.

There were admitted facts at the trial that prior to the robbery, on 7 November 2020, the defendant’s husband had rented a flat in One West Kowloon to keep observation of the victim’s flat. CCTV footages captured the defendant and her husband, as well as another robber “Yeung”, having been to that observation flat on 22 November 2020. That was two days before the robbery. CCTV footages also captured the defendant with her husband and/or that robber Yeung having been to the Metropark Hotel Kowloon on 24, 28 and 30 November 2020, that was the same day and a few days after the robbery.

The defendant, in her subsequent police video-recorded interview, as well as her testimony in the trial, denied knowing even the existence of those stolen items in her bedroom. The defendant, in her evidence in court, admitted having been to that observation flat and the hotel but denied having any knowledge of the robbery.

The Defendant’s Background

The defendant was born in 1989 in the Mainland and is now 35 years old. She received secondary education in the Mainland China. She was married to Chan in 2018, and since then had been coming to Hong Kong by way of two-way permit. She no longer had contact with Chan after her arrest and she gave birth to a baby girl in January 2023, whose biological father was not Chan. She is unemployed and lived with her mother and her daughter in San Po Kong area.

After this incident, which took place back in 2020, she was once convicted of shop theft, for which she was sentenced to 3 months on 24 August 2022.

Mitigation

Mr Fung submitted a set of written mitigation submissions for the defendant. Apart from confirming the defendant’s background as set out above, the defence submitted that the defendant, with a clear record at the time of the offence, had handle