HKSAR v. CHAN WAI LOK

DCCC 61/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 61OF 2012

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Reasons for Sentence

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Charge and facts

1.  The police executed a search warrant on a public housing unit occupied by the defendant and his mother.  There were a number of empty resealable plastic bags and an electronic scale on the desk in his bedroom.  Under his pillow were 1 small and 3 big bags of drug, 42.94 g in gross weight or 15.36 g in ketamine in total. 

2.  Under caution, he said he was a delivery worker earning $3,000 a week. He had bought 42 g of drug 4 days ago at $2,400. The empty bags and the scale were for packaging it.  He had been on ketamine for a year.  He would inhale it once or twice a week.  He would have 0.2 – 0.3 g each time but later said that it was 2 g each time.       

3.  The retail value was estimated to be $4,700. 

Personal background and mitigation

4.  He is 21 years of age, F. 3 education level.  He has a clear record.  He lives with his parents and a younger sister.  His father is a dim sum master whereas his mother is a dim sum worker in the same restaurant.  From February to September 2011, he was a dim sum apprentice but could not bear the early and long hours.  In October 2011, he delivered stationery on a daily basis, earning $3,000 a week. 

5.  His counsel informs me that he would take out a bag with 2 g each time for himself and to treat his friends to show face.  She accepts, quite properly so in my view, that the bulk of drug would have lasted him 9 months for self-consumption.  I am given to understand that he himself had no preconceived idea of the apportionment between trafficking and self-consumption. 

Sentencing guidelines

6.  There are sentencing guidelines for trafficking in ketamine laid down in HKSAR v Hii Siew Cheng [2007] 1 HKLRD 1.  For 10 – 50 g of ketamine, the sentence shall be 4 – 6 years.

Sentencing this defendant

7.  He was found to have “42.94 g” of the mixture powder.  His admission was that he had bought “42 g” of it 4 days ago.  It means that he had not consumed any of it those 4 days.  He has been into ketamine for only 1 year and inhaled it once or twice a week.  That speaks for a recreational user, not a dependant.   Piecing all these together, the irresistible inference is that a significant majority of the drug was for trafficking. 

8.  I take 4 years as the starting point.  I give one-third discount for his plea of guilty.  There are no other mitigating factors.  The sentence is 2 years and 8 months.