HKSAR v. TSE YU HIN

DCCC694/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 694 OF 2012

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, you were charged with three offences. You pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting a police officer, contrary to section 63 of the Police Force Ordinance, and I convicted you after trial of an offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.

2.  I had found that on 8 June 2012 at about 10.15 pm whilst you were being searched by a police officer you pushed and fled the searching and in the midst of the chase by three police officers you assaulted and injured two of those police officers. 

3.  Towards the end of the chase one of the officers saw that you put your right hand into your right trousers pockets and throw a packet of drugs into the hillside.  The packet of drugs was eventually found with the assistance of a sniffer dog and inside one packet were two smaller packets containing 22.71 grammes of ketamine.

4.  I was satisfied that you had avoided being searched by the police officers because you did not want the police officers to discover that drugs were in your possession.  You further attempted to discard the drugs during the chase also in an attempt to dispose of the drugs so the police could not find it.

5.  The two police officers whom you had assaulted were sent to hospital for treatment and one of them was found to sustain abrasions on his right elbow and both knees and a laceration on his head.  The other officer was found to sustain tenderness on his left forearm, left knee and right middle finger, swelling on his left forearm and left knees, abrasion on his left forearm and laceration on his right middle finger.

6.  Defendant, your counsel, Mr William Allan, has made full and thorough mitigation on your behalf before me.  I have taken into account all that he has had to say.  He stressed that you wish to apologise to the officers for assaulting them, that you knew it was wrong, that is why you pleaded guilty, and you did so out of impulse.

7.  You are 20 years of age.  At the time of commission of the offence you were 19 years of age.  You have three previous convictions, two related to possession of dangerous drugs, to which in 2009 you were sentenced to Detention Centre and in 2011 to the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre.  You also have one similar or related to violence in 2008, a conviction for wounding under section 19, to which you were sentenced to probation for 3 years. 

8.  Mr Allan has correctly referred me to the tariff case of Hii Siew Cheng for trafficking in dangerous drugs such as ketamine.  As is said by the Court of Appeal, youth is not an exception for not following the guidelines.

9.  Defendant, I have no doubt you know the severity of this offence.  You have already been detained at the Detention Centre for possession of dangerous drugs and have also served a drug addiction treatment rehabilitation.

10.  Defendant, taking into account, the quantity of drugs to which you had in your possession for the purposes of unlawful trafficking I consider the appropriate sentence to be one of 4years 6 months imprisonment.  That is the term to which you shall be so sentenced for Charge 1.

11.  For Charges 2 and 3, they were offences of assaulting a police officer, I consider the proper sentence for those two charges to be one of one month imprisonment. 

12.  However, having considered the principle of totality, I shall order one week of Charge 2 to run consecutive to Charge 1 and the remainder of the term in Charges 2 and 3 to run concurrent.  That means your total sentence will be 4 years 6 months and 1 week or 7 days imprisonment.