DCCC1095/2010

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1095 OF 2010

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Ng Lin-mei, you have been convicted on your own pleas of one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs and one charge of possession of dangerous drugs. The charges are the result of a police raid on the room in which you were living in Tai Wo Hau Estate on the evening of 21 July this year. Inside the drawer beside your bed, the police found 26 plastic bags which contained a total of 21.09 grammes of a powder containing 16.76 grammes of ketamine and 0.03 grammes of methamphetamine. These are the drugs that are the subject of the trafficking charge. They were estimated to have a street value of about $2,000.

2.  You admitted to the police that you were selling the ketamine to customers who came to your room to buy them.  You would buy the drugs and then repackage them into smaller packets for the purpose of resale. 

3.  The second charge of possession relates to a small quantity of methamphetamine hydrochloride, otherwise called “Ice”, which was found in the same drawer.  The quantity was 0.42 grammes of a solid containing 0.42 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.  It had a street value of about HK$360.  There was nothing to suggest that it was other than for your own consumption.

4.  You are a mature woman who has been in trouble with the police on a number of previous occasions.  Some of those charges have involved dangerous drugs although I note that none have involved trafficking. 

5.  You would have been very well aware that very serious consequences would follow if you were detected with these drugs.  I am sure Mr Li will have told you that the normal starting point for those who traffic in between 10 and 50 grammes of ketamine is a sentence of between 4 and 6 years’ imprisonment unless there are exceptional circumstances.  I have taken into account all that Mr Li has said on your behalf and in particular the reason that you decided to commit these offences, namely, that you had been abandoned by the father of your two-year-old child and would have to look after that child on your own.  That cannot, however, provide an excuse for engaging in anything as evil as trafficking in dangerous drugs which affects the lives and health of its victims.

6.  I also take into account that as a result of these offences, it will be not you but your sister who will have to look after your child while you are in prison.  You will be deprived of day-to-day contact with your child.  While taking into account all these circumstances, in my view, they are not so exceptional as to warrant a departure from the normal sentencing tariff.

7.  In my view, the appropriate starting point for the trafficking charge is 4 years’ imprisonment.  You have pleaded guilty and are therefore entitled to the usual discount of one‑third.  The sentence upon you therefore in respect of the 1st charge is one of 32 months’ imprisonment, 2 years 8 months.

8.  So far as the charge of possession of dangerous drugs is concerned, I bear in mind that the quantity was very small and I do not find that there was any latent risk that you would have disposed of those drugs to others.  I adopt a starting point of 12 months’ imprisonment on the 2nd charge which I discount by one-third to reflect your plea, and I accordingly pass a sentence of 8 months’ imprisonment on Charge 2.  That sentence is to run concurrently with the sentence on Charge 1, meaning that the total sentence that I am passing on you today is 2 years 8 months.