COURT: The defendant, Chan Miu-chu, a 30 year old woman, has pleaded guilty before me for a count of unlawfully trafficking in a dangerous drug contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134, and a count of possession of a dangerous drug contrary to section 8(1)(a) and (2) of the same ordinance. She has also admitted the summary of facts prepared by the prosecution. The relevant facts are set out below.
In the evening of 8 January 2013 a team of police officers positioned themselves outside a flat on the 16th floor, Sau Tai House, Fu Tai Estate, Tuen Mun. They had a search warrant for the flat. At about 2020 hours the defendant and a man were seen to come out from the flat into the lift lobby. Police officers approached and stopped them.
The defendant was taken to the staircase on the 16th floor. A woman police officer requested to search the defendant. The defendant told the officer that there was no need to search. She took two packets of “Ice” out from the right side and another two packets of “Ice” out from the left side of her brassier. The defendant was arrested and cautioned. She said that, the “Ice” was for her own consumption and that there was more inside her home. The defendant took out some keys from her handbag which she used to open the gate and front door to the flat. The search warrant was shown to the defendant. The police searched the premises and found under a table one plastic box which contained five plastic bags of “Ice”, three bundles of small resealable plastic bags and two inhaling devices. When asked, the defendant said that she bought the “Ice” for her own consumption. On the table were found one inhaling device which contained some liquid, one small electronic scale and two lighters. When asked, the defendant said that the items were used when consuming “Ice”. $5,000 in cash was also found inside the defendant’s wallet.
The defendant was later video interviewed at the police station. She stated, amongst other things, as follows. She bought the “Ice”, which is a dangerous drug, from her friend, one “Ah Man”, for $30,000. She used the electronic scale to weigh the drugs and to repackage them into smaller packets. The lighters and inhaling devices were used to consume the drugs. At the time of her arrest she was taking four packets of drugs to hide in the rear staircase because she did not want to store too much drugs in her home. The man with her was a friend who came to visit her. He did not know about the drugs and she was going out to dinner with him at the time. The flat was rented by a boyfriend who was not living there at the time. She lived in the flat with her four year old son only. She was unemployed.
The government chemist confirmed that the “Ice” found on the defendant’s person were in total 68.57 grammes of a crystalline solid which contained 66.52 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride. The “Ice” found inside the flat was in total 56.9 grammes of a crystalline solid which contained 55.30 grammes methamphetamine hydrochloride. The liquid was 35 millilitres which contained 0.11 grammes of methamphetamine. The quantities of drugs together has an estimated street value of HK$90,212.
The man who was with her was also arrested, but eventually released without charge.
The defendant admits and accepts that she unlawfully trafficked in the dangerous drugs described before, namely 121.82 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride. According to the case of AG v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125 as amended in HKSAR v Capitania [2004] HKCU 926, that’s CACC 28/2004, 11 August 2004, unreported), for trafficking in 70 to 300 grammes of methamphetamine, the sentence should be 10 to 14 years’ imprisonment.
The defendant is a 31 year old woman with a son about five years old. According to her counsel, she was trying to make money out of these drugs in order to help out when her boyfriend, a person in jail at the time, would come out of jail. She knows that it is wrong now. She has written me a letter expressing her remorse and the fact that she was not going to see her child for a long time. The boyfriend has also written me a letter which is very supportive of her and trying to assure the court that he would help her not to commit this kind of offence again. However, for such a serious offence as the first charge, that is trafficking in a dangerous drug like “Ice”, personal circumstances matter little.
For the present case, for Count 1, which involves more than 120 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride, I consider then a starting point of 11 years of imprisonment is appropriate. That is a slightly lower starting point because I have taken into account the clear record of the defendant. Regarding the second charge, the unlawful possession of 35 millilitres of “Ice” liquid, a sentence of 3 months would be appropriate.
There are no other mitigating circumstances, but the defendant is entitled to one-third discount for her guilty plea and remorse. In the result, she should go to jail for 7 years 4 months for Count 1 and 2 months for Count 2 and to be lenient to her, I order the two sentences to run concurrently.
Her global sentence is therefore 7 years and 4 months of imprisonment.