HKSAR v. LOUIE SHUK-CHUN BABE

DCCC189/2011

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 189 OF 2011

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.

2.  You have admitted that on 17 December 2010 at the Customs Arrival Hall, Lok Ma Chau Control Point, New Territories, Hong Kong, you unlawfully trafficked in a dangerous drug, namely 48.88 grammes of a mixture containing 39.96 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. 

3.  The offence occurred at about 10.25 pm, when you were intercepted by Customs officers at the Lok Ma Chau Control Point Arrival Hall. 

4.  Upon search, three plastic bags were found inside the cups of your bra: two bags of drugs were found in your right cup of the bra whilst the other was found in the left cup. 

5.  Under verbal caution, you claimed that the drugs were white powder and for your own consumption.  In a subsequent cautioned interview conducted the following day, you admitted that the drugs belonged to you.  You had purchased them in Shenzhen from an unknown female at HK$5,000.

6.  You admitted that you consumed heroin for 4 to 5 times a day and you would have consumed this heroin within a month.  You admitted that at the time you were arrested you had been unemployed for approximately a month.  The estimated value of the drugs was HK$30,020. 

7.  Mr Dick Lee, your counsel, has made a full mitigation on your behalf and I have taken into account all that he has had to say.

8.  You are 40 years of age and have been in court on 14 previous occasions.  Seven of your previous convictions relate to drugs, whilst your last conviction in 2006 was a similar conviction to that that you have pleaded to today of trafficking in dangerous drugs, to which for that charge alone you were sentenced to 5 years and 4 months’ imprisonment. 

9.  On that same date you were convicted of possession of dangerous drugs and on appeal your sentence was that of 8 months’ imprisonment. Hence, you were released from serving that sentence of imprisonment on 7 November 2009.  Mr Lee points out that this offence was committed approximately 1 year and 1 month later. 

10.  For the intervening year before you committed this offence you in fact had after your term of imprisonment found a job as a waitress earning $8,200 per month. 

11.  However, soon thereafter the restaurant closed down and you were unemployed again and were unable to find employment.  You then moved to live with your ex-husband, who is a drug addict.  You then took up the habit of taking drugs again.

12.  You soon had disputes with your husband and your relationship could not last.  You separated again and that is when, due to your dependency on drugs, you went to Shenzhen to buy these drugs.  Mr Lee had in his mitigation informed me that it was your mitigation that these drugs were all for your own consumption.

13.  I informed Mr Lee that I was not going to accept his contention that these drugs were for your own consumption, and I referred to him to the case of Wong Suet Hau Ice, CACC366/2000, and he told me he was well-aware of that case.  He informed me that he had firm instructions from you that you were not going to give evidence on this issue of self-consumption. 

14.  Having looked at the factors of this case, I did not accept the contention that these drugs were for your own consumption.  Those factors, as I indicated to Mr Lee, were the large quantity of drugs involved, their value of $30,000, the fact that they were discovered in your bra when you were coming across the border from China, wrapped individually in three packets and your ability and means to purchase these drugs given the fact that you had been employed for a month prior to your arrest. 

15.  There was a huge discrepancy in price which you say you purchased the drugs in China and the value of the drugs in Hong Kong as agreed.

16.  Another factor to be taken into account is  your previous criminal record in relation to drugs offences.  In those circumstances, I repeat again I do not accept your contention that the drugs were for your own consumption. 

17.  On that basis, I sentence you on the basis of pure trafficking in these drugs.

18.  Mr Lee, your counsel, has quite rightly referred me to the tariff case of Lau Tak Ming for the quantity of drugs that you had been trafficking in it.  The 39.96 grammes of heroin falls in the bracket of between 10 and 50 grammes of imprisonment of a starting point between 5 to 8 years after trial.

19.  Defendant, given the quantity of drugs, I take a starting point of 7 years’ imprisonment.  Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty, which is by far the strongest mitigating factor in this case, I reduce that term to one of 4 years and 8 months’ imprisonment.