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Hksar v Felix Rohrer

Judgment Cited in 6 Precedent Map Related
Vincent
Judgment Date21 August 2001
Year2001
Citation[2001] 3 HKLRD 175
Judgement NumberCACC114/2001
Subject MatterCriminal Appeal
CourtCourt of Appeal (Hong Kong)
CACC000114/2001 HKSAR v. FELIX ROHRER

CACC000114/2001

CACC 114/2001

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 114 OF 2001

(ON APPEAL FROM DCCC NO. 163 OF 2000)

______________

BETWEEN

THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
AND
FELIX ROHRER

______________

Coram: Mayo V-P, Keith JA and Woo JA in Court

Date of Hearing: 21 August 2001

Date of Judgment: 21 August 2001

_______________

J U D G M E N T

_______________

Keith JA (giving the judgment of the Court):

Introduction

1. The Applicant pleaded guilty in the District Court to a total of ten charges involving counterfeit travel documents and counterfeit travellers' cheques. On 16 March, he was sentenced by Judge Wong to terms of imprisonment totalling 4 years and 4 months. He now applies for leave to appeal against his sentence.

The facts

2. The Applicant is a Swiss national who was 27 years old at the date of his arrest. He arrived in Hong Kong on 21 December 2000. The passport which he presented at immigration control was a counterfeit German passport in a fictitious name. On the following day, he visited five foreign exchange outlets in Tsim Sha Tsui to cash 50 travellers' cheques which had purportedly been issued to Ralf Anderson. The Applicant had a counterfeit Danish passport in the name of Ralf Anderson which he used for the purposes of identification. Each of the travellers' cheques was for US$100.00.

3. The Applicant cashed 33 of the travellers' cheques obtaining a total of HK$24,893.00 at three of the outlets. He left the fourth outlet when he was asked for receipts for the purchase of the 13 travellers' cheques which he tried to cash there. He was caught at the fifth outlet when the member of staff to whom the remaining 4 travellers' cheques were presented became suspicious and called the police. Another 11 US$100.00 counterfeit travellers' cheques in the name of Ralf Anderson were found either on him or in the room he had rented the previous day.

4. The Applicant admitted these facts when he was subsequently interviewed by the police. He told them that he had lost his Swiss passport in Thailand and had run out of money. He had been approached in a bar by a Pakistani who had persuaded him to cash counterfeit travellers' cheques in Hong Kong. He was to hand over the cash he obtained to the Pakistani's associates in Hong Kong, and in return he was to be paid 10% of the proceeds when he returned to Thailand. He had been provided by the Pakistani with the counterfeit German passport.

5. He told the police that on his arrival in Hong Kong he had been taken to a building in Tsim Sha Tsui where he had rented a room. He had then been contacted by Pakistani associates of the man he had met in Thailand who had given him the 61 travellers' cheques and the counterfeit Danish passport, and who had taken him to each of the foreign exchange outlets to cash them. He had not been given all 61 travellers' cheques together in case he was caught. He had only been given those travellers' cheques which he was to cash there and then. After cashing the cheques, he had given the cash to the Pakistanis who had taken him to the outlets and who had watched him throughout. There was nothing to contradict what the Applicant had told the police.

6. On these facts, the Applicant faced two charges of using forged travel documents relating to the counterfeit passports. He faced five charges of using false instruments relating to the 50 counterfeit travellers' cheques which he had tried to cash. He faced three charges of possessing false instruments relating to the 11 counterfeit travellers' cheques found on him and in his room which he had not yet had a chance to cash.

The judge's approach

7. The judge took 18 months' imprisonment as his starting-point for the two charges of using forged travel documents. He reduced that by one-third to reflect the Applicant's guilty pleas, and he therefore sentenced the Applicant to 12 months' imprisonment on each of those charges to run concurrently with each other. He took 5 years' imprisonment as his starting-point for the eight charges relating to the counterfeit travellers' cheques. He reduced that by one-third to reflect the Applicant's guilty pleas, and he therefore sentenced the Applicant to 3 years' and 4 months' imprisonment on each of those eight charges to run concurrently with each other but consecutively to the sentences passed on the two charges relating to the counterfeit passports. The Applicant's sentences therefore totalled 4 years' and 4 months' imprisonment.

The proper approach to the sentencing of the Applicant

8. In the course of his sentencing remarks, the judge told the Applicant that he was proposing to adopt the totality principle. In view of the number...

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6 cases
  • Secretary For Justice v Ng Kit And Another
    • Hong Kong
    • Court of Appeal (Hong Kong)
    • 5 de novembro de 2001
    ...for review of sentence. Both applications involved the same issues: the trial judge was wrong in principle to follow HKSAR v Rohrer [2001] 3 HKLRD 175 which is not applicable to Chinese mainlanders and the trial judge was wrong to have given a further two-month reduction to the sentences of......
  • Hksar v Chan Tat Wah
    • Hong Kong
    • Court of Appeal (Hong Kong)
    • 5 de novembro de 2001
    ...for review of sentence. Both applications involved the same issues: the trial judge was wrong in principle to follow HKSAR v Rohrer [2001] 3 HKLRD 175 which is not applicable to Chinese mainlanders and the trial judge was wrong to have given a further two-month reduction to the sentences of......
  • Secretary For Justice v Tse Ki Wu
    • Hong Kong
    • Court of Appeal (Hong Kong)
    • 5 de novembro de 2001
    ...for review of sentence. Both applications involved the same issues: the trial judge was wrong in principle to follow HKSAR v Rohrer [2001] 3 HKLRD 175 which is not applicable to Chinese mainlanders and the trial judge was wrong to have given a further two-month reduction to the sentences of......
  • Hksar v Hong Chang Chi
    • Hong Kong
    • Court of Appeal (Hong Kong)
    • 13 de dezembro de 2001
    ...skilled arguments, submitted that the discount had been a proper one which had been given support in HKSAR v Rohrer [2001] 3 HKC 371, [2001] 3 HKLRD 175, which was decided after sentence in the present case was imposed. Whilst accepting that the Applicant is not, as the judge had stated, a ......
    • Request a trial to view additional results

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