CRIMINAL CASE NO. 89 OF 2010
The amended charge alleged that on 8 October 2009, outside the ground floor of 372 Portland Street, in Mongkok, you unlawfully trafficked in 29.85 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 18½ grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
In both the Magistracy and in this court, you accepted a Summary of Facts as describing the factual basis upon which the court was to accept your plea of guilty and impose sentence.
Shortly after 2 am on the morning of 8 October 2009, you were observed by a police officer, apparently not in uniform, leaving premises at 372 Portland Street, which premises you had entered only 30 seconds earlier. Having been intercepted by that officer, a search of your person revealed the presence of a packet wrapped in the waistband of your underpants. Immediately, you said, “Ah Sir, the packet of ‘Ice’ is for me to consume”.
You were taken to a police station and after the white packet was opened, it was found to contain a plastic resealable plastic bag in which the substance which, on examination, was found to be methamphetamine hydrochloride, was found. That substance is known colloquially as “Ice”.
In a subsequent video-recorded record of interview, you claimed that you had purchased the “Ice” as a result of an arrangement with a person you called ‘Ah A’, whom you said you had paid by the transfer of more than $9,000 by use of a cash deposit machine in the Mongkok Branch of the Bank of China in Nathan Road. You claimed that, although you were unemployed, you purchased “Ice” for that sum of money every one or two days.
You accepted that an inspection by the police of the CCTV operating at the cash deposit machine did not depict you as appearing, as you had claimed. In the result, you accepted that you had been trafficking unlawfully in the dangerous drugs at the time that you were arrested.
You are a married man of 58 years of age, having been born in Hong Kong. I am told that at the time of your arrest, you were unemployed; further, that this had led to difficulties with your wife.
You have been convicted of criminal offences on no less than 27 previous occasions, the first of which was as far back as 1971. Beginning in 1976, you have been convicted on numerous occasions of the offence of possession of dangerous drugs. In 1988, you were convicted of the offence of possession of dangerous drugs for the purpose of unlawful trafficking and sentenced to 4 years and 3 months’ imprisonment. In 2005, you were convicted of that offence again and sentenced to a total, on my calculation, of 3 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.
Your counsel invites this court to accept your plea of guilty as an expression of remorse, in particular, to take into account that you pleaded guilty at an early stage, whilst in the Magistracy. Also, he points out that there was a gap of about 18 years between your two convictions for trafficking in a dangerous drug. Notwithstanding your bad criminal record, that point is well made.
I turn then to the starting point for sentence. Guidelines in respect of the starting point to be taken for sentence after trial for the offence of unlawfully trafficking in methamphetamine hydrochloride are set out in the judgment of the Court of Appeal in The Attorney General v Ching Kwok Hung. Unlawful trafficking in a band of 10 to 70 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride attracts sentences in the range of 7 to 10 years’ imprisonment. I take a starting point for sentence of 7½ years’ imprisonment.
I turn then to the discount to be afforded to you. Notwithstanding your initial prevarication in the account that you gave to the police as to your culpability, your overall culpability, in particular, your assertion that you were possessed of the dangerous drugs for your own personal consumption, in light of your plea of guilty to the offence of unlawfully trafficking in those dangerous drugs at a relatively early stage in the court proceedings, you are entitled to a discount from that taken for the starting point for sentence of one-third.
As a result, the sentence imposed upon you now is that of 5 years’ imprisonment.