由此 - 5 A A however, was that he failed to give proper recognition to that distinction. B B The authority to which the judge made reference, LEE Cho-keung C (reported as [2004] 4 HKC 179, was so strikingly different factually and as C to the personal circumstances of the applicants in that case as to be D D completely removed from the present matter: however, it eloquently E illustrates why the present sentence is manifestly excessive. F F 8. G H I J K L M N O P Q R E Only a brief consideration of the judgment is necessary to demonstrate this to be so: “13. The judge was right to say that the cases did not set a tariff. As Cross and Cheung 'Sentencing in Hong Kong' 4th edition, correctly remark at page 571, there is no customary sentence for this type of offence and 'everything depends on the particular facts of the case: whether the accused is the keeper, the manager or the assistant; the scale of the operation; the age of the prostitutes. Managers or keepers regularly receive terms of imprisonment; those who assist, less regularly. The maximum penalties for keeping a vice establishment under section 139 of the Crimes Ordinance, Cap 200, were increased from 2 years to 3 years on summary conviction and from 7 years to 10 years on conviction on indictment on 22 May 1998 (the maximum fine of $20,000 was repealed). Cases decided before that day should be considered in the light of those increases.' … 15. This was no ordinary or simple vice establishment. This was a large operation involving a significant number of prostitutes and a stream of customers; the use of several premises; four different floors, 22 rooms; and it was also a sophisticated operation involving the generation of substantial sums of money within a matter of weeks; an operation that ran promotional campaigns requiring the visits of photographers to take nude photographs of the women for the purpose of advertisement; and those who were actively involved in its functioning must self-evidently have been aware of the scale of the operation in which they were involved… G H I J K L M N O P Q R S … S T 17. Some of the women engaged in this conveyer belt of prostitution were aged as young as 16 years and to say, as did the T U U V V