CRIMINAL CASE NO. 204 OF 2012
COURT: You were convicted after trial of one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs. In sentencing, I have considered the whole circumstances of the case, including its nature and facts, in particular, the type and quantity of the dangerous drugs involved, your background and mitigation put forward on your behalf.
The facts of the case are simple and straightforward. At about 1.20 pm on 23 December last year, you alighted from a taxi and went upstairs to the building as set out in the indictment, together with another man. At the staircase between the 3rd and the 4th floor, a police officer conducting observation in the staircase revealed himself and demanded you to stop. At that juncture, you threw away the jacket which was originally put on your left forearm. Then another police officer who followed you into the staircase picked up the jacket. Inside the pocket of this jacket, dangerous drugs, which are the subject matter of the charge, were found.
I was told that you are 35 years of age, still single. You received education up to form 3 level. You did not have a fixed place of abode. You do not have a clear record. The record shows that drug abuse has been your major problem. You were, in May 2008, convicted of an offence of possession of dangerous drug and an offence of failing to surrender to custody without reasonable cause. For these two offences, you were sentenced to a total of 16 months and 20 days’ imprisonment.
A few days later, you were convicted of another charge of possession of dangerous drug, one charge of possession of equipment fit and intended for consumption of dangerous drug and doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice. For these offences you were sentenced to a total of an additional 15 months’ imprisonment. In January 2011, you were sentenced to 4 months’ imprisonment for one charge of possession of dangerous drug.
In the same year, not long after your discharge, you committed the present offence, a much more serious offence. The dangerous drugs you trafficked in were 13.32 grammes of a crystalline solid, containing 13.23 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride and 198 tablets and two tablet fragments containing 0.77 of a gramme of nimetazepam.
The Court of Appeal held, in AG v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125, that in a case of trafficking in "Ice" where the narcotic content was between 10 to 70 grammes, the sentence should range from 7 years to 10 years’ imprisonment.
I see no reason in the present case to depart from the tariff. Two types of dangerous drugs were involved; I have to take this into account. At the same time, I note that nimetazepam is a less serious drug and its quantity was small. Having considered the whole circumstances, I am of the view that a starting point of 7 years and 9 months is appropriate.
I do not think there is justification for any discount in the sentence in this case. I sentence you to an imprisonment term of 7 years and 9 months.