Three Filipinos were sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to charges of theft and attempted theft in a Hong Kong District Court on March 27.
In a report by Hong Kong News, JS Mangasil and JRA Aguilar were each sentenced to 48 months for theft and attempted theft charges.
But because both have entered a guilty plea to the charges, District Judge Timothy Casewell discounted eight months to each chargem reducing the total sentence to 32 months.
The third defendant, A.D.T. Serapiones or W.V. Diamante or A.A. Amor, was sentenced to 42 months in prison on charges of theft and attempted theft as well as 15 months for breaching deportation order case.
Prosecutors alleged that the trio were responsible for stealing an iPhone of a woman who was shopping at Zara store inside the IFC mall in Central in June last year. The three defendants also attempted to steal items from the clothing shop.
Mangasil, 44, is a single mother with two daughters aged 18 and 17, and one son, 16, in Manila. She also supports an ailing mother. As a vegetable vendor, her lawyer told the court, she earned HK$500 a month.
Cuesta, 40, works in a cockpit, and earned HK$950 a month. As “sole breadwinner” of his family, Cuesta supports six children and an elder sister who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Serapiones, 58, has five children aged between 26 and 31, and has been previously jailed in Hong Kong for a similar pickpocketing offense.
In handing the sentence, Judge Casewell said the three defendants came to Hong Kong specifically to commit the crime.