A MAN who was given an 11-year jail sentence for robbing the same shop twice in 11 days had his term cut by two years yesterday.
Allowing the appeal of Chan Chin-long, 22, the Court of Appeal accepted that the starting point of 14 years adopted by the trial judge in assessing sentence was too high.
Nine years would have been more appropriate and in view of Chan's guilty plea, seven years would have been a proper sentence for each of the holdups.
The court, comprising Vice-President Mr Justice Power, Mr Justice Nazareth and Mr Justice Mortimer, took into account the principle of totality and ordered five years of the second sentence to run concurrent with the first one, making it a total of nine years.
Chan had pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and was given a concurrent jail sentence of 11 years for each offence by Mr Justice Saied.
The holdups took place at the Mannings store in Repulse Bay on November 3 and 14, 1991.