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| The accused was caught selling fake branded items on the ground floor of World-Wide Plaza |
A Filipina was sentenced to a total of 15 months earlier today after pleading guilty to four charges, including overstaying her visa, doing illegal work and possessing and openly selling fake branded goods in World-Wide Plaza in Central.
Sandralyn de Leon Bartolome, 34 years old, had been
staying in Hong Kong illegally for two years and five-and-a-half months when
she was arrested at shop 155 on the first floor of World-Wide Plaza on Sept. 20
this year.
She had unknowingly sold a pair of counterfeit
Hermes slippers to an undercover agent from the Customs and Excise Department
who paid her with a marked $500 before announcing the arrest, along with
another agent.
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Arrested along with her was Josefina Araneta Ygot,
39, who was identified as the shop owner.
A total of 1,085 fake branded goods were found in
the shop, including more than 400 pairs of slippers, 119 bags, plus dozens of
short pants and wallets, bearing such brands as Hermes, Gucci, Yves Saint
Laurent, Christian Dior, Fendi, Chanel, Longchamp, Nike and Adidas.
Aside from being charged with Bartolome of selling
and possessing the prohibited items, Ygot was also slapped with a charge of
employing a person not lawfully employable, and not renewing her HKID card on
time.
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She asked through her counsel for her case to be
adjourned to Jan. 26 next year for legal advice, to which the prosecution did
not object.
Magistrate Ivy Chui granted the application and
extended Ygot’s bail of $10,000 until then. She also advised Ygot to go
directly to the Duty Lawyer Service office to seek the services of counsel so
she will have legal representation at her next hearing.
Bartolome who had been detained since her arrest,
pleaded guilty to all the four charges against her.
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Her counsel said she was supposed to remain in Hong
Kong only until May 20, 2021 after being terminated from her work as a domestic
helper, but she decided to stay. She reportedly survived during that time
taking up odd jobs in Central.
According to the lawyer, Bartolome knew that she was
not supposed to take up work, especially as she had already overstayed her
visa, so there was not much to say by way of mitigation, except for her guilty
plea,
For the first charge of selling counterfeit goods
Chui imposed a 15-day prison sentence, which would be cut to 10 days given the
1/3 discount the defendant was entitled because of her guilty plea.
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For the second charge of possessing the illicit
items and the third of overstaying her visa, Bartolome was meted a discounted
sentence of two months in jail.
As for the fourth charge, Chui said this was the
most serious, as the court had already imposed sentencing tariffs for illegal
work. She used a starting point of 22.5 months, which she then reduced by a
third, for a total of 15 months.
As all the sentences are to be served concurrent with each other, Bartolome will have to serve the most severe penalty of 15 months’ imprisonment.
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