The custom of handing down suspended prison sentences to people who employ illegal immigrants must stop, a judge warned yesterday.
Mr Justice Colin Jackson made the written statement as he dismissed Leung Chun-sang's appeal against a four-month prison term handed down on December 11.
Leung, 37, had pleaded guilty in a magistrate's court to two counts of hiring a person not lawfully employable.
Leung had employed two mainland visitors to work for his car repair business on Castle Peak Road in June last year. One of the men was jailed for two months and the other received a suspended two-month term.
During Leung's appeal against sentence, the Court of First Instance heard the prosecution had told the sentencing magistrate that suspended prison terms were often imposed even when jail was appropriate.
But the magistrate dismissed the advice and sentenced Leung to four months, saying: 'It is evident that my sentence of four months' imprisonment is well below the proper tariff.'