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HCCC 48/2017
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO 48 OF 2017
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HKSAR |
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NGAN Shiu-ping (顏紹平) |
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| Before: |
DHCJ Stuart-Moore |
| Date: |
13 April 2017 at 9.37 am |
| Present: |
Ms Lilly Wong, SPP (Ag) of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR |
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Mr Francis Yip Kim-ming, instructed by Legal Aid Department, assigned by DLA, for the defendant |
| Offence: |
(1) & (2) Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物) |
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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case
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COURT: The defendant, who is now aged 51, worked as a part-time minibus driver, earning $13,000 a month approximately. But what has brought him before this court is that he was supplementing his earnings by taking delivery of cocaine from an unnamed friend for onward delivery to others. Each delivery usually earned him about $250. The offences were committed on 5 July 2016, and on 13 February 2017, he pleaded guilty to the two charges of trafficking that he faces, in the Magistrates Court, and he has confirmed those pleas today.
The facts reveal, very briefly, that he was stopped and searched in Tuen Mun. Inside his shoulder bag were found 20 small plastic bags in which a total weight of the solid was 8.61 grammes, of which the narcotic content was 8 grammes of cocaine. He was also carrying an electronic scale.
The keys found on him at the time of his arrest enabled police to go into his flat where a further two electronic weighing scales were found together with four packets containing a solid weighing 94.5 grammes. The actual cocaine weighed 86.8 grammes.
The total value of the 94.8 grammes of cocaine kept by the defendant for the purpose of trafficking was $116,823.
In mitigation, Mr Yip, on behalf of the defendant, has submitted that really the only mitigation here is the timely plea of guilty entered by the defendant.
Under the sentencing guidelines in The Queen v Lau Tak Ming & Others [1990] 2 HKLR 370 which were adopted for cocaine in the Attorney General v Pedro Nel Rojas [1994] 1 HKC 342, it seems to me that the quantity of cocaine in this case would justify a starting point, after trial, of 9 years’ imprisonment as this comes within the bracket of 50 to 200 grammes, giving rise to a recommended sentence of between 8 and 12 years.
I am going to give you the full discount for your pleas of guilty. Your sentence on Count 1 will be discounted from 4½ years reduced down to 3 years. On Count 2, again, there will be a discounted sentence from 9 years down to 6 years’ imprisonment.
Those two sentences will run concurrently so that your total sentence is one of 6 years’ imprisonment.
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