{"id":1057,"date":"2024-07-11T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2024-09-07T01:00:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T17:00:03","slug":"court-of-first-instance-allowed-appeal-against-sentence-for-a-defendant-who-pleaded-guilty-to-operating-a-gambling-establishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/court-of-first-instance-allowed-appeal-against-sentence-for-a-defendant-who-pleaded-guilty-to-operating-a-gambling-establishment\/","title":{"rendered":"Court of First Instance allowed appeal against sentence for a defendant who pleaded guilty to operating a gambling establishment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<section class=\"section news-detail-section\" id=\"section_2021445972\">\n\t\t<div class=\"bg section-bg fill bg-fill  bg-loaded\" >\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\n\t\t<div class=\"section-content relative\">\n\t\t\t\n\n\t<div id=\"text-207773239\" class=\"text breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #627A80;\nfont-family: Merriweather;\nfont-size: 13px;\nfont-style: normal;\nfont-weight: 400;\nline-height: 150%; \/* 19.5px *\/\nletter-spacing: 0.39px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/\">Home<\/a> \/ <a href=\"\/news\/\">News<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n<style>\n#section_2021445972 {\n  padding-top: 0px;\n  padding-bottom: 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/section>\n\t\n\t<section class=\"section news-detail-section\" id=\"section_177398471\">\n\t\t<div class=\"bg section-bg fill bg-fill  bg-loaded\" >\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\n\t\t<div class=\"section-content relative\">\n\t\t\t\n\n<div class=\"row\"  id=\"row-65070125\">\n\n\n\t<div id=\"col-798669690\" class=\"col medium-12 small-12 large-12\"  >\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"col-inner\"  >\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t<div id=\"text-2344950882\" class=\"text h3\">\n\t\t\n\n<p>Court of First Instance allowed appeal against sentence for a defendant who had pleaded guilty to operating a gambling establishment<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div id=\"text-1600519175\" class=\"text h5\">\n\t\t\n\n<p><strong>HKSAR v Ho Yuk Ching (\u4f55\u7389\u6e05)<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\n<style>\n#text-1600519175 {\n  font-size: 1.25rem;\n  text-align: left;\n  color: #003d4c;\n}\n#text-1600519175 > * {\n  color: #003d4c;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div id=\"text-1305371074\" class=\"text txt-bold\">\n\t\t\n\n<p>11 July 2024<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"img has-hover x md-x lg-x y md-y lg-y\" id=\"image_2139738075\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"img-inner dark\" >\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1020\" height=\"574\" src=\"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Ho-Yuk-Ching-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Ho-Yuk-Ching-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Ho-Yuk-Ching-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Ho-Yuk-Ching-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Ho-Yuk-Ching-18x10.jpg 18w, https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Ho-Yuk-Ching.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<style>\n#image_2139738075 {\n  width: 100%;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t<div id=\"gap-1025182246\" class=\"gap-element clearfix\" style=\"display:block; height:auto;\">\n\t\t\n<style>\n#gap-1025182246 {\n  padding-top: 0px;\n}\n@media (min-width:550px) {\n  #gap-1025182246 {\n    padding-top: 40px;\n  }\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n<p>The Court of First Instance reduced the quantum of fine from HK$ 100,000 to HK$ 25,000 for a defendant who had pleaded guilty to operating a gambling establishment.<br \/><br \/>The Appellant was arrested and pleaded guilty to a charge of operating a gambling establishment before a Principal Magistrate. When acting in person, the Principal Magistrate (instead of letting the court interpreter interpret the full facts of the case) on his own volition \u201csummarised\u201d and &#8220;interpreted&#8221; the facts as follows: \u201cthe Police raided the flat\u2026there were three mahjong tables\u2026you guys were gambling there, correct?\u201d (\u4e0a\u5740\u5462\u5c31\u4fc2\u7576\u65e5\u5462\u906d\u5230\u5462\u500b\u8b66\u65b9\u65e2\u6383\u8569\u5587\u2026\u4e0a\u9762\u6709\u5462\u4e09\u5f35\u5462\u5481\u65e2\u96fb\u5b50\u9ebb\u96c0\u6aaf\u2026\u4f60\u5730\u56db\u500b\u5462\u5c31\u4fc2\u5ea6\u8ced\u7dca\u9322\u3002). The Appellant told the Principal Magistrate that he was illiterate, and said he did not know how to mitigate. The Principal Magistrate then sentenced him to 14 days\u2019 imprisonment. The Appellant immediately arranged for private legal representatives to review the Principal Magistrate\u2019s sentence. Unfortunately, the review could only take place the next day and the Appellant served 1 day of imprisonment. On the following day, after hearing submissions, the Principal Magistrate reviewed his sentence, and ordered the 14 days\u2019 imprisonment be suspended for 3 years, but additioanlly fined the Appellant for HK$ 100,000. The Appellant appealed. <br \/><br \/>On allowing the appeal against the sentence, DHCJ Frankie Yiu noted that the Principal Magistrate did not fully interpret the Brief Facts prepared by the prosecution. Nevertheless, the Principal Magistrate used facts contained in the Brief Facts but not interpreted to the Appellant as aggravating factors justifying why he fined him for HK$ 100,000. The court disapproved of this practice. Taking into account various authorities, the CFI agreed that a fine of HK$ 100,000 is manifestly excessive. The Court allowed the appeal and reduced the fine to HK$ 25,000, to be paid within 3 months. <\/p>\n<p>Simon So (with Herman Ho) represented the Appellant in the appeal against sentence. The Full Judgement was published on <a href=\"https:\/\/legalref.judiciary.hk\/lrs\/common\/ju\/ju_frame.jsp?DIS=162007&amp;currpage=T\">https:\/\/legalref.judiciary.hk\/lrs\/common\/ju\/ju_frame.jsp?DIS=162007&amp;currpage=T<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t<div id=\"gap-28599013\" class=\"gap-element clearfix\" style=\"display:block; height:auto;\">\n\t\t\n<style>\n#gap-28599013 {\n  padding-top: 60px;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t<div class=\"ux-menu stack stack-col justify-start ux-menu--divider-solid\">\n\t\t\n\n\t<div class=\"ux-menu-link flex menu-item menu-button-link\">\n\t\t<a class=\"ux-menu-link__link flex\" href=\"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/news\/\" >\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"ux-menu-link__text\">\n\t\t\t\tBack to News\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n<style>\n#section_177398471 {\n  padding-top: 0px;\n  padding-bottom: 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n\t<\/section>\n\t\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Court of First Instance reduced the quantum of fine from HK$ 100,000 to HK$ 25,000 for a defendant who had pleaded guilty to operating a gambling establishment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsochambers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}