At about 3.15 pm on 6 January 2014, police officers searched the flat at Ground Floor, 29 Ho Pui Tsuen, Tsuen Wan.
The defendant was living in the bedroom. Two bunches of keys were found from the left trouser pocket of the defendant. Two of these keys fitted the lock of the uppermost drawers of a chest inside that bedroom.
In the left uppermost drawer of the chest, the police found various items as follows:
(a) One plastic bag containing 133.99 grammes of ketamine, and another 15 smaller plastic bags containing 28.63 grammes of ketamine.
(b) Forty-seven plastic bags containing 7.78 grammes of cocaine.
(c) A large number of re-sealable plastic bags of different sizes.
Inside the right uppermost drawer of the chest were two tenancy agreements, one of which related to the flat searched. On top of the same chest was an electronic scale, a pair of forceps, a plastic fork and a pair of scissors. All items contained traces of cocaine.
The defendant admitted that he paid $1,000 per month to stay at the bedroom.
The total market value of the drug was about $37,000.
The defendant is 25, he has four previous convictions - they were not related to drug offences. He received education up to Form 5. He was a casual delivery worker at the time of the offence. He lived at Leung King Estate with his father who is 65. He was introduced to the trafficking plot by a former colleague, Jason. He was responsible for repacking the drugs, and earned $700 for each delivery.
In relation to the 162.62 grammes of ketamine, according to Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew Cheng, the starting point should be 7 years and 4 months’ imprisonment. For the 7.78 grammes of cocaine, according to Lau Tak Ming, the starting point should be 4 years and 4 months’ imprisonment. I adopt the approach in HKSAR v Wong King Kau [2010] 4 HKC 443 for sentencing as there are two kinds of drugs.
According to my calculation, trafficking in 7.78 grammes of cocaine will be comparable to the criminality of trafficking in 16.7 grammes of ketamine. I add this notional 16.7 grammes to the 162.62 grammes of ketamine in the charge. The total is 179.32 grammes of ketamine. The defendant is sentenced on the basis of trafficking this equivalent amount of ketamine.
For 179.32 grammes of ketamine, the starting point should be 7 years and 7 months’ imprisonment. Having considered the quantity of drugs and the mitigation, I take 7 years and 7 months as the combined starting point. I deduct 2 years and 6 months for his plea. I sentence the defendant to 5 years and 1 month imprisonment.