HKSAR v. CHAN CHAU

HCCC 443/2015

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 443 OF 2015

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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT:  Yes, Chan Chau, stand up.

Chan Chau, it is pointless me saying anything to you. It is clear that you are a hopeless drug addict, and regrettably, I suspect that you will always remain one.

Given your very long criminal record, you will be very well aware that long prison sentences are imposed on those people who traffic in heroin. You have been before courts long enough to know that there are very clear guidelines to all judges and magistrates as to how we should sentence those people who choose to traffic in heroin, and I see no reason in your case to depart from those guidelines. They are, and they have been, for a very long time, based on the active weight of the heroin in the total quantity trafficked.

Aggravating your offence of trafficking, there are three factors. You are a repeat offender. At 27 occasions, you have been convicted of possession of dangerous drugs, and as far as I can see, that on nine occasions before this, you have been convicted of traffic in dangerous drugs, though this is the first time you have been dealt with for trafficking in dangerous drugs in the High Court of Hong Kong.

The second aggravating factor is that you told the police - and I believe you told the police the truth when you said this - that you intended to sell the heroin, mixed with midazolam, to other drug addicts outside or near to the methadone treatment clinic in Tuen Mun, which means you had the intention of deliberately damaging the good that such clinics do.

And thirdly, you trafficked in a mixture of dangerous drugs, both heroin and midazolam.

Following those guidelines which of I have just spoken, and I make it clear that they are set out to be followed in respect of those defendants who, like you, are convicted after trial. I am taking account of the active weight of the heroin that you possessed for the purposes of trafficking, and that was 41.51 grammes in a mixture weighing a total of 62.65 grammes. In addition, the midazolam tablets, of which there were 62, had an active content of 0.80 grammes.

I am going, for practical purposes, to ignore the weights of the midazolam. There is clear authority that I can do so it is regarded as a less serious drug than heroin, far less serious.

I am also going to accept what your counsel said to me this morning, in that I am prepared to believe that the 11 pellets of heroin, which had an active drug content of 4.31 grammes were for your own self consumption, and therefore I come the decision that the starting point sentence I should be looking at, following the guidelines, is one of 7 years’ imprisonment. But I am going to take into account those three aggravating factors that I am satisfied are present in your case, and I am increasing that 7 years’ starting point sentence to one of 8 and a half years’ imprisonment.

I want to make it clear that you have no mitigation whatsoever, and therefore, for the first offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs, you are going to go to prison for 8 and a half years.

We come to the offence of possession of “Ice”, the second count that you pleaded guilty to. I am going to take account of the fact that you were prepared to plead guilty to that on the first day of trial, although I notice from my notes that when you appeared before me last year, last September, you pleaded not guilty to it. Going to sentence, I take a starting point sentence for that possession offence of 1 years’ imprisonment, and because you pleaded guilty, I am reducing that to a sentence to 8 months’ imprisonment.

I also take the view that your possession offence forms part of the same course of criminal conduct as your trafficking offence, and therefore, I am ordering that the 8 months prison sentence I have passed on you for the possession offence is to be served concurrently, which means, at the same time, as the 8 and a half years’ imprisonment you will serve for the trafficking offence.

So Chan Chau, you are going to be imprisoned this time for 8 years and 6 months.