THE QUEEN v. HO KAM SHUI

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL

1995, No. 125
(Criminal)

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J U D G M E N T

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Bokhary, J.A.:

1. This is an application for leave to appeal against conviction and sentence.

2. The applicant faced one count, on which he was tried before Deputy Judge Burrell and a jury. It was of trafficking in dangerous drugs. The drugs consisted of 341.11 gms of a mixture containing 55.54 gms of heroin. Those drugs, it was common ground at the trial, had a "street" value of about $47,000. Therefore, if, as the prosecution alleged, the accused was in possession of those drugs, it was plainly open to the jury to infer that the same were possessed for the purpose of trafficking as opposed to mere self-use.

3. On January 27 this year, the jury convicted the applicant as charged; and the judge sentenced him to eight years' imprisonment.

4. As to conviction, the grounds of appeal lodged by the applicant, now in person although legally represented at the trial, read:

"(1) there was no concrete evidence from the police; and that

(2) I did not commit the offence."

The second so-called ground is not really a ground of appeal at all. As to the first, the short answer is that there was evidence from the arresting officers that the applicant was holding the bag in which the drugs were contained. He asserted and gave evidence to the effect that the drugs had been "planted" on him by the officers. But the jury were entitled to reject that and to conclude that the truth lay with the officers and thus convict the applicant as charged. That is what they did; and leave to appeal against conviction is refused.

5. As to sentence, the grounds of appeal lodged read:

"(1) I am quite elderly and

(2) the sentence imposed on me was too severe".

6. As to the first ground, the short answer that he is only 50 years old. And as to the second ground, the eight-year term imposed is within the guidelines laid down for this quantity of drugs such as these. Leave to appeal against sentence is also refused.