An extra year in jail for women smuggler
By Albert Smith | Sat, 01/10/2009 - 22:09
A Vancouver man who was acquitted of human trafficking, and had been convicted of smuggling women from China to make them work as prostitutes at a massage parlour in Vancouver, will now have to spend one more year in jail, following an increase in his sentence by one year.
The Crown appealed the fifteen-month sentence which was imposed on Wai Chi (Michael) Ng last year by the Provincial Court Judge Malcolm MacLean.
The Crown held the position that Ng should have been sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison after he was convicted on counts of producing fake immigration documents, human smuggling, procuring sexual intercourse and running a vulgar house.
Subsequently, three judges of the B.C. Court of Appeal realized that the fifteen-month sentence imposed on him was unfit and increased the sentence to twenty-seven months.
Appeal Court Justice Richard Low pointed out on Wednesday that for almost two years, Mr. Ng managed a common bawdy house. He said that Mr. Ng employed more than two prostitutes and was convicted of procuring illegal sexual intercourse with two of them for a very long period.
He said that he ran a prostitution business and also profited from the same. The sentences imposed for his offences are thus not fit and that the global sentence if insufficient, he added.
Under the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act which was introduced in 2002, Mr. Ng was the first Canadian to have been charged with human trafficking.
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