Tough penalties for pornography peddlers were urged by a judge yesterday amid concern police and magistrates are being overwhelmed by cases. Madam Justice Clare-Marie Beeson said that while courts had the power to impose a three-year jail term and $1 million fine for those who produced obscene material, salesmen often got off lightly. 'Clearly, the rewards for the Mr Bigs of the trade are such that they can afford to reopen sales venues as soon as they are closed,' she said in the Court of First Instance. 'Those selling goods are arrested and re-arrested while awaiting trial . . . the court must rely on sentences that are truly deterrent. 'Only then will they be discouraged from taking up and continuing this work.' Her comments came as she dismissed appeals by Yu Man-lung, Matthew Lam Siu-wah, Kwan Shiu-chung and Chu Sai-pun against eight-month jail sentences imposed by a magistrate after they admitted selling obscene video compact discs. The four were caught selling the goods in Mongkok shops between May and July. Undercover officers bought between three and five obscene VCDs from each of the salesmen, although the defendants admitted there were hundreds more offending discs on sale at the time. The four were jailed by Principal Magistrate John Saunders, who noted that North Kowloon Court had seen an increase in cases from 20 per month at the end of April to more than 200 cases in the following two months. Mr Saunders said police were being forced to change their tactics to deal with the rise and the court was similarly snowed under. 'Police resources are overwhelmed by the number of offences, and because of insufficient manpower, they couldn't seize all [goods] in the shop,' he said, referring to the case. Defence counsel Mahinder Panesar argued sentences for selling obscene articles varied greatly, depending on the magistrate dealing with the case. But her application for a certificate to argue the case at the Court of Final Appeal was rejected by Madam Justice Beeson.
