HKSAR v. YEUNG YUK MING

DCCC237/2011

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 237 OF 2011

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  The defendant has pleaded guilty to one offence of possession of a dangerous drug, the drug in question being a quantity of 7.89 grammes of ketamine. The defendant has agreed to a set of facts, and I convicted him of that offence.

2.  The facts show that the arrest of the defendant took place on 5 January 2011.  The defendant was stopped in Yuen Long by Customs & Excise officers.  He was searched and a zip-lock bag with 20 smaller plastic zip-lock bags was found in the defendant’s underwear.  Each of the bags contained ketamine.

3.  The defendant was arrested and cautioned.  He said that the ketamine belonged to him, it is for his own consumption.  He later said he had bought the ketamine for $1,100 and put it in his underpants. He was afraid that the police officers would find them.  And he had been sleeping outside in the open for the last few days.  The total value of the drug is estimated at 1,159.38. 

4.  The defendant has a criminal record, a total of 15 previous convictions.  He has been sentenced to probation training centre, and in 1993, the first offence, he was sentenced to drug addiction treatment centre.  Subsequent to that he has been sentenced to a suspended sentence of imprisonment, possession of dangerous drugs in 1994; in 2001 a total of 2 years’ imprisonment for possession of a dangerous drug; and in 2008, 9 months’ imprisonment for trafficking in a dangerous drug. 

5.  The defendant is described as married but separated, had been a construction worker at the time of his arrest.  The defendant being convicted of possession of a dangerous drug, it was necessary for me to consider whether he would require treatment in a drug addiction treatment centre.  I obtained a report on him.  The conclusion of the report is that the defendant is no longer a drug dependent, and because of that fear of drug abstinence treatment would not be beneficial to him. 

6.  The defendant has a somewhat lengthy drug history.  The option of drug addiction treatment centre is not available to him now, and I have to consider the appropriate level of sentencing for the defendant.  He has been convicted of the possession of over 7 grammes of ketamine.  The quantity in itself is insufficiently large to bring into considerations what I call “latent risk”.  It is not a small quantity of the drug, but it is not a large quantity either.  It is within the quantity and range that could be used for personal possession.  It has been valued at about $1,100.

7.  I consider the sentence of imprisonment is the appropriate sentence to be imposed on the defendant in this case and given his previous involvement with drugs.  It has been said that for a single possession of a dangerous drug a starting point of between 12 and 18 months’ imprisonment is appropriate.  In this case I shall take a starting point of 15 months’ imprisonment on the defendant.  Taking into account his plea of guilty, that means I reduce the sentence by one-third to 10 months’ imprisonment.  So that is 10 months’ imprisonment.