COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to trafficking in dangerous drug.
The circumstances of the case are that on 5 November 2013 he was intercepted by the police when leaving a room in an estate in Wong Tai Sin, Kowloon. He was searched but nothing was found on him. The police then searched the room where they found a mobile phone box which had inside it six plastic bags containing a total of 0.6 kilograms of “Ice”. They also found an electronic scale and a number of empty plastic bags on a sofa.
The defendant was cautioned and he admitted that he was helping someone to deliver the drugs as he was short of money. Later in a video-recorded interview he stated that he was out of work and that was why he was assisting a person called Ah Yau to deliver the drugs. He said that Ah Yau offered him a $2,000 reward to do the delivery but he had not yet been paid. He said that he received the drugs, the electronic scale and the empty plastic bags from Ah Yau in a black plastic bag and he took the items to his home to await Ah Yau’s instructions as to the delivery. He claimed that Ah Yau had not yet made contact with him when he was arrested.
According to the sentencing guidelines of Attorney-General v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 126 and HKSAR v Capitania CACC 28/2004, unreported, a starting point of a term of imprisonment of 11 years and 6 months would apply for this quantity of drugs.
The defendant is 51 years of age and has a shocking prior criminal history. Since the age of 15 years he has lived a life of crime, coming before the courts on 18 occasions for 35 offences variously involving stealing, violence and drugs. Over the last 30 years he spent most of his time in prison. He has been convicted of serious offences of robbery and drug trafficking for which he has received substantial terms of imprisonment.
No meaningful mitigation has been advanced on his behalf.
Over the last 15 years he has been convicted of trafficking on dangerous drugs on three occasions, receiving terms of imprisonment of 6 years, 10 years and 3 years and 2 months respectively. His last conviction for trafficking in dangerous drugs was on 8 April 2011, and he was released from prison in relation to the sentence of that case on 21 December 2012.
This repeat offending by the defendant demonstrates that he has a complete disregard for the law, and the punishment that he has received for his past offending has had no deterrent effect on him.
He shows, in my view, a dangerous propensity to committing crime and he is, therefore, a risk to the public.
The public need to be protected from the recidivist.
The defendant’s prior criminal record and propensity to commit crime provide a grave and serious aggravating factor to the circumstances of this case.
The defendant is a recidivist and I will sentence him on this basis.
I will increase the starting point of his sentence by one year, and I do so taking into account the aggravating features of the persistence of his offending and the failure of previous sentences to deter him in his life of crime, and I set this against the nature of this offence and the sentence it will attract.
Accordingly, I impose a starting point of 12 years and 6 months’ imprisonment which I will reduce by one-third in accordance with the sentencing guideline that entitles a person who has pleaded guilty to receive a one-third discount on his sentence.
Accordingly, the defendant is sentenced to 8 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.