HKSAR v. WAN CHI KEUNG

 DCCC1018/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1018 OF 2009

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, I found you guilty after trial of an offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. I found that on 20 July 2009, at about 8 pm, at the lift lobby of the 35th floor of Mei Yue House, Shek Kip Mei Estate in Sham Shui Po, you trafficked in 98.87 grammes of ketamine. You had denied that you were ever in possession of or the ketamine was found on your person. I believed the police officers that you were holding the drugs in your right hand contained inside a black plastic bag.

2.  Mr Chau, your counsel, has mitigated on your behalf today. He accepts that a sentence of imprisonment is inevitable given the quantity involved. You have four previous convictions, none similar. They were committed some nine years ago now when you were a juvenile. You are aged 22 and had been unemployed for some two to three months prior to the commission of this offence. You are not a drug abuser.

3.  As Mr Chau rightly points out, the guideline for trafficking in ketamine is laid down in the case of Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew Cheng CAAR7 of 2006, and the bracket to which you fall within is the fourth bracket of 50 to 300 grammes, a sentence of 6 to 9 years' imprisonment.

4.  The quantity here was 98.87 grammes of ketamine. I take a starting point of 6 years' imprisonment, to which you are so sentenced.