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HCCC398/2009
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 398 OF 2009
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HKSAR |
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Chan Kwok-chun (陳國俊) |
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Date:
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25 January 2010 at 11.01 am
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Present:
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Ms June Cheung, SPP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr David Rex Boyton, instructed by S Y Chu & Co., for the Accused
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Offence:
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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: Mr Chan, this is my sentence and the reasons for it. The defendant was committed to this court for sentence pursuant to section 81B of the Magistrates’ Ordinance, Cap. 227, in respect of an offence of trafficking in 24.78 grammes of Ice.
The facts of this case were that the defendant was stopped by police as he drove his motor vehicle in a street in Tseung Kwan O. When the vehicle was searched the charge drugs were found in a cigarette box in the driver’s door’s storage compartment. The defendant, when later interviewed, admitted he possessed the drugs for trafficking. Given the quantity of drugs involved, I take a starting point of sentence of 7 years 6 months’ imprisonment. The defendant’s plea of guilty reduces that starting point to a sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment.
There is one further matter that I take into account. The defendant, at the time of his arrest, was driving an unlicensed and uninsured motor vehicle. For those offences he received, in the magistracy, a total sentence of 1 month’s imprisonment. That sentence has now been served. The time served in respect of that sentence, as I understand it, will not be taken into account in determining the date of release of the defendant for the present offence. See section 67A(1)&(1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance. I cannot see that the motor vehicle offences and the sentence imposed in respect of those offences could be considered “an order of the court made in connection with any proceedings relating to this offence.”
I might add the more appropriate and usual sentence for these offences, I am told, is one of a fine. Looked at in isolation, that would have been appropriate in the offences concerning the defendant’s motor vehicle in this case.
In any event, if the defendant had been sentenced for those offences at the same time as the present offence, and in respect of them had been sentenced to a term of imprisonment, and an order of concurrent or partial concurrence had been made in respect of any term imposed for the present offence, then I think it would be right to further reduce the present sentence to reflect that. In my view, in those circumstances, it would have been proper for the motor vehicle offences and the present offence to have been served concurrently.
Accordingly, the sentence imposed in the present offence, is reduced by a further month, and the defendant is sentenced to 4 years 11 months’ imprisonment.
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