A Filipino landscapist escaped jail on Aug. 30 despite pleading guilty to harboring an overstaying Filipina.
Ramil de los Reyes was meted a six-week jail term suspended for a year by High Court Judge Esther Toh after reviewing his case.
The suspended sentence meant he would not go to jail unless he commits another offense within the prescribed period of one year.
Earlier on Feb. 15, de los Reyes was sentenced by Shatin magistrate Andrew Ma to two months in jail for the offense of aiding and abetting a breach of immigration rules, and to a fine of $1,000 for failing to register the birth of the Filipina’s baby.
The defendant got a two-week discount to the sentence two days later. Referring to the original sentence, Judge Toh said, “The magistrate decided correctly that this (aiding and abetting a breach of immigration rules) is a serious offense that calls for immediate custodial sentence”.
But she accepted defense counsel Andrew Leung’s argument that the magistrate did not give enough weight to the applicant’s claim that jailing him would put in jeopardy both the mother and the baby’s health.
She allowed De los Reyes to walk out free after announcing the suspended sentence.
The prosecution earlier objected to the defense counsel’s application for a non-custodial sentence, arguing for the deterrent purpose of a jail term for anyone abetting and aiding an immigration offense.
“His girlfriend came to Hong Kong on a limited status because she was a domestic helper. She had a relationship with the appellant and was in breach of her condition of stay. Fortunately, because she has a baby she’s out of jail,” the prosecution lawyer said.
Leung said his client would have surrendered the unnamed woman much earlier, but, as a father concerned about his child, he waited for the baby to grow until it would be more stable and stronger by the time the mother went to jail.
Leung said in fact it was Delos Reyes who persuaded and went with the Filipina to surrender to Immigration authorities when the baby was 18 months old.
