CRIMINAL CASE NO. 139 OF 2011
COURT: On 15 April 2011, the defendant, aged 30, pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, the important component of which was that he had a crystalline solid, containing 38.61 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride, which I will simply refer to as ice. The other items mentioned in the charge are of comparative insignificance.
This quantity of ice was found on 24 September 2010 after police had searched the premises where the defendant was staying. This was achieved after delaying tactics from those who were inside, including the defendant. The door was barred to the police and when that happened, a number of items were thrown out of the window, including plastic bags of ice. The door was eventually broken down and the defendant was arrested.
Various drug-related items and quantities of ice were found inside the premises. The combined weight of the ice in the charge reflects both the ice found in the flat as well as the ice thrown out of the window.
To his credit, the defendant took all the blame for the drugs and other paraphernalia at the flat where he was residing. He told the police that he regularly supplied ice to the person whose flat this was and, on this basis, he had been allowed to stay at the flat. He said that he had spent $20,000 buying one-and-a-half ounces of ice and that he supplied friends with ice. The street value of these drugs was estimated to be $31,130.
The defendant has a long criminal record, which includes a number of cases of possession of dangerous drugs, going back to 2002 when he was first sent to the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre. However, there is nothing for trafficking on his record and there are no other aggravating features in the case. Whilst it may be true that he uses some ice himself, and I accept that that may well be the case, there is nothing in the papers of this case to suggest that the vast majority of drugs was for any other purpose than supplying to others.
The guidelines in Attorney General v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125 indicate that for between 10 and 70 grammes of ice the sentence should range from 7 to 10 years’ imprisonment. Ms Sim, in her address to me in mitigation, has of course accepted that this must be the case.
In my judgment, for 38.61 grammes, the sentence should be, after trial, 8 years and 3 months’ imprisonment. The defendant’s timely plea of guilty enables me to discount that sentence by a full third. Accordingly, the sentence is that you go to prison for 5½ years.