HKSAR v. WONG MING KUEN, HUMAN

DCCC 204/2019

[2019] HKDC 1388

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 204 OF 2019

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Mr Wong has pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug. The offence was committed last year, 5th December 2018, and the quantity of narcotic of the drugs is 6.33 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.

2.  The facts agreed to are very simple.

3.  The defendant was stopped and searched after appearing to pick something up from a flowerbed.  In his possession, a total of some 60 packets of drug were found and we know the quantity had been 6.33 grammes in total.  He was also found together with two mobile phones. 

4.  The defendant immediately admitted under caution that he trafficked in the drug for a reward of $1,000 a day for a man he had met in Sai Kung.  The value of the drugs is stated to be $8,656.

5.  The defendant’s background is he is currently aged 22 years old.  He was 21 at the time of the offence.  He has been employed in the past as a chef, at, I understand, Japanese restaurants.

6.  He has one single conviction in respect of possession of dangerous drugs dating back to 2014, when he was placed on probation, and the defendant, in answer to the police questions on his background, said that he had been addicted to the drug methamphetamine since he was 14 years old.

7.  As far as his mitigation is concerned, I am asked to treat him with leniency because of his fairly young age still,  the request of his family for leniency and the defendant’s remorse, indicating an early plea, and regret for wasting his life up to now.

8.  And I am told the defendant is still interested in working as a chef at a Japanese restaurant, although he found the work somewhat difficult and the hours are very long, as I understand.  He took the way out of trafficking in drugs for easy money.

9.  As far as the approach to sentencing is concerned, defendant is naturally entitled to a full deduction of one-third for his plea of guilty.

10.  The question I have to determine is the starting point for sentence for the defendant.  The determination of starting points in cases involving trafficking in dangerous drugs are largely determined by guideline sentencing, and the guidelines would normally reflect the quantity of drug involved in the offence.  The quantity I am dealing with here is 6.33 grammes of the drug heroin, placing it within a band of between 2 to 5 years’, the 5 years being appropriate for some 10 grammes of heroin.

11.  Ms Wong, the defence counsel, has made the calculation that, by simply adopting a quantitative approach, would lead to a starting point of 3 years and 11 months’ imprisonment.

12.  It is not necessary that I always adopt a quantitative approach, but it is perhaps the most significant factor in determining where the starting point should lie.

13.  But I must give credit for the defendant’s remorse, his plea of guilty, and the fact that he is not a hardened criminal. He is still a fairly young man, with only one conviction, and that for a drug offence which arises out of, I am told, his addiction to the drug, which one hopes will be dealt with by the period in prison that he will serve as a result of this sentence.

14.  Of course, as I have already said, the length of the sentence must be primarily determined by the quantity of drug concerned. 

15.  What I shall do in this case is give some weight to the factors that have been put forward in mitigation and, as a result of giving weight to those, I will take a starting point for sentence at 39 months’ imprisonment. 

16.  After deduction for the defendant’s plea of guilty, that would lead to a final sentence of 26 months’ imprisonment, and that is the sentence I would impose.