HKSAR v. NGAN YIU LEUNG, DANIEL

DCCC 1322/2011

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1322 OF 2011

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Reasons for Sentence

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Charge and facts

1.  The defendant pleads guilty to trafficking in a dangerous drug.  In the afternoon on 13 October 2011, the police found a bag of powder in the opening of the fire hose reel at the 9^th floor staircase of a residential building.  When the defendant came to pick it up, he was intercepted and searched.  Eight more bags of powder were found on him.  After arrest and caution, he said the 8 bags of ketamine were taken out from his home and all 9 bags of ketamine were for his own consumption.  He had $3,690 on him.  

2.  The ketamine weighed 120.39 g gross and 45.95 g in narcotics.  The estimated retail price was $13,242.90.   

Personal background and mitigation

3.  He is 20 years of age.  He was educated up to F. 2.  His parents had divorced since he was aged 2.  He did not know the identity of his mother.  His father is a decoration worker.  He lives with his grandmother, a security guard.  They could not supervise or guide him adequately.  He hooked up with drug addiction by association with undesirable peers.  He has 1 similar record in 2008 for which he was sentenced to the detention centre.  He was released in September 2009. 

4.  He was stated as unemployed in his antecedent statement taken on 3 January 2012 but his solicitor informs me that he worked as a part-time waiter earning $7,500 per month on average.   

5.  His solicitor submits that ¼ of the haul was for self- consumption.  I query how this figure is arrived at and require evidence to substantiate that. His solicitor informs that the defence will call no evidence in any event. Given the unresolved issues of his going out with all the drugs and the disparity between his stated income and his alleged income, I am not prepared to accept that figure. 

Sentence considerations for trafficking in ketamine

6.  The Court of Appeal in Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew Cheng [2009] 1 HKLRD 1 had laid down sentencing guidelines for trafficking in ketamine.  For 10 to 50 grammes, the sentence shall be 4 to 6 years’ imprisonment.

Sentencing this defendant

7.  He had known the culpability of trafficking in dangerous drugs well enough before.  The irresistible inference from his going out with all 9 bags of ketamine, each weighing 5 g in narcotics, is that it was for extensive trafficking.  His own portion would be a morsel by comparison.  I take as a starting point 5½ years.  I reduce it by one-third for his plea of guilty. There are no other mitigating factors.  His sentence is 3 years and 8 months.