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DCCC638/2009
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 638 OF 2009
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Before:
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H H Judge S. D’Almada Remedios
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Date:
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27 July 2009 at 11.46 am
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Present:
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Mr Dominic Ngai, PP, of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Ms Susan Liang, of Messrs Susan Liang & Co., assigned by the Director of Legal Aid, for the defendant
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Offence:
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(1) Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物)
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Reasons for Sentence
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1. Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. You admitted that on the 6th day of May 2009 in Yue Man Square, Kwun Tong, you trafficked in 103.50 grammes of a powder containing 71.82 grammes of ketamine.
2. On the day in question, at the location, at about 6.40 pm, a police officer saw you acting suspiciously by patting your trousers pocket from time to time. Police officers then searched your trousers pocket and found the drugs as per the charge contained in four plastic bags. You admitted that you were delivering those “K-Jai” for others and said that as you owed Ah Keung $1,000, you agreed to deliver the four bags of ketamine for him to set off the debt. You had estimated that the ketamine weighed about 100 grammes.
3. Your solicitor, Miss Liang, has made full mitigation on your behalf today, and I have taken into account all that she has had to say for you. You are aged 38, single, are living with a son aged 9 and a mother aged 70. You have 10 previous convictions on eight occasions, of which none are similar. You have been incarcerated on two occasions, once in 1995 for blackmail for eight months and once in 2002 for wounding and common assault for 15 months. This is, of course, your first conviction related to drugs. And as Miss Liang has expanded, upon your admission to the police, you delivered these drugs as you had been harassed by a debt collector for $1,000. You are not a drug addict.
4. I have received a letter of plea for mercy on your behalf by your young son who is here in court today and having to witness his father be sentenced to a fairly lengthy period of imprisonment. Your mother is also here today, and as you have separated with the wife of your son since he was 1 month old, your mother is the primary carer of your young son. This is, I am sure, sufficient determination for you to turn a new leaf and assist both your mother, who is now getting on in age, and your son, who is growing up, when you are released from prison in finding yourself a proper job and also keeping out of trouble.
5. The offence to which you have committed is, as I am sure you are well aware, a very, very serious offence. Clearly, earning quick money is a ticket and alarm bells for knowing that something is wrong. Is it in this case, as you may reflect, really worth delivering drugs for $1,000 to be sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment? This is not a small amount of drugs.
6. Your solicitor rightly refers to the case of Hii Siew Cheng, these are guidelines on sentencing for trafficking in ketamine. For the amount of drugs of 71.82 grammes of ketamine, to which you trafficked, I take a starting point of six years’ imprisonment. Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty and your genuine remorse, I reduce that term by one-third to one of four years’ imprisonment, to which you are so sentenced.
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(S. D’Almada Remedios)
District Judge |
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