HKSAR v. PUJI ASTUTIK

HCCC 157/2016

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 157 OF 2016

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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT:

This is the court’s sentence.

Background and the facts

The defendant pleaded guilty before me to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug.

Briefly, the defendant was stopped by the police on 2 August 2015, when she was walking along Wing Sing Lane, in the direction of Temple Street, Kowloon. During a search conducted on the defendant’s handbag, the police found two resealable plastic bags which contained the drug particularised in the count. That is a total of 20.7 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 20.4 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride. Under caution, the defendant claimed that the drug was for her own consumption.

The estimated retail value of the drugs seized was around HK$6,800.

Mitigation

The defendant is aged 32 and was born in Indonesia. She was lowly educated and she came to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper in August 2009, but her employment was terminated in 2010. Thereafter, she overstayed and did some odd jobs. In October 2015, she was convicted of the offence of breach of condition of stay after her arrest in respect of the present offence. She was then sentenced to a term of 3 months’ imprisonment.

In mitigation, Ms Lam, for the accused, urged upon this court to adopt a lower starting point because the defendant only committed the present offence because of an urgent need of money to pay for the medical expenses of her mother who is suffering from liver cancer. Ms Lam told the court that the defendant is now remorseful and she frankly admitted the offence. A letter written by the defendant was also handed to the court in which she again expressed her remorse.

Sentencing consideration

The revised tariffs for trafficking in ‘Ice’ were laid down in the case of HKSAR v Tam Yi Chun [2014] 3 HKLRD 691. For trafficking between 10 and 70 grammes of ‘Ice’, the revised term is one of 7 to 11 years of imprisonment for this band.

The sentence in this case

Having considered the amount of ‘Ice’ involved and the facts of this case, I am going to adopt a starting point of 7½ years, that is 90 months.

The defendant pleaded guilty and she would receive a one-third reduction in sentence. That reduction, of course, already reflected her remorse and the timely plea. Other than this, there is nothing which would warrant any further reduction in sentence. The defendant’s family situation, of course, is not a mitigating factor although the court is sympathetic.

Ninety months reduced by one-third is 60 months’ imprisonment. Therefore, I order that the defendant is to serve a term of 60 months for the offence to which she has pleaded guilty.