court 

 

Update on Conspiracy to Defraud

 

On 12th August 2014 the Appeal Committee of the Court of Final Appeal granted leave to appeal on the following questions of law:

  1. Whether the principle that a court in Hong Kong has jurisdiction to try a crime ‘a substantial measure of the activities’ of which took place within [the] jurisdiction stated in HKSAR v Krieger and Another (CACC 99/2012, unrep., 18 December 2013, at §122) citing R v Smith (Wallace Duncan) [2004] QB 1418 at 1433H-1434B has the effect of extending the ambit of s.159A(3) of the Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200) such that in a conspiracy to traffick unlawfully in dangerous drugs from Hong Kong to a place outside Hong Kong, any part of the conspiracy which, although considered on its own, is exclusively extraterritorial is triable in Hong Kong; and

  2. Whether an accused who participated only in a part of the conspiracy which, if considered on its own, is entirely extraterritorial can be tried and convicted of conspiracy under s.159A by a court in Hong Kong.

Leave to appeal was also granted on the basis that it is reasonably arguable that in upholding the conviction, the Court of Appeal expanded the scope of the conspiracy from a conspiracy having one objective to one with multiple objectives and that this expansion gave rise to procedural unfairness.