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convictions which occurred subsequent to the present case. He had a clear criminal record at the time of the commission of the present offence.
233. Miss Tina Mok, counsel for D29, submitted that D29 acted as an “active participant” in the conspiracy, and a starting point of 4 year’s imprisonment would be appropriate to reflect his level of involvement and culpability.
234. We received mitigation letters from former senior government officials, LegCo members and many others. They all asked for a lenient sentence be passed.
235. In our judgment, the role of D29 in the Scheme was that of an active participant. He agreed that he would veto the Budgets indiscriminately with others in pursuant to the Scheme if he were successfully elected into the LegCo.
236. Based on the role of D29 in the Scheme, 7 years (84 months) would be adopted as the starting point.
237. Given the guilty plea of D29, a full one-third discount would be given. It was not raised in the mitigation that D29 committed the offence under a mistake of the law, hence we gave no reduction under this head.
238. Miss Mok asked us to give further reduction for D29’s positive good character and that he had a clear record at the time of the offence.
