HKSAR v. YEUNG SHEK YUNG

HCCC 272/2016

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 272 OF 2016

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

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COURT:

Defendant, Yeung Shek-yung, it is clear from your criminal record that you are a hopeless and irredeemable drug addict and there is nothing that I can do or say that can change that. You have been in prison many times before for drug offences and you are now back off to prison again.

Your counsel, Mr Chase Pun, has put before me a most thorough and comprehensive written argument in support of your mitigation.

You have pleaded guilty to three counts on the indictment against you. They are as follows.

The 2nd Count is one of possession of dangerous drugs which was on 29 August of last year at Room 7 on the 1st floor of a flat in Apliu Street, Sham Shui Po. You had in your possession 20 millilitres of a liquid containing 0.14 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride that you will know as ‘Bing’ and I will know as ‘Ice’.

You pleaded guilty to the 3rd count, which is one of trafficking in dangerous drugs on 30 September of last year, outside Flat B on the 4th Floor of 31 Wong Chuk Street, Sham Shui Po, where you lived. You unlawfully trafficked in the following dangerous drugs: 27 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 25.2 grammes of ‘Ice’ and 15.1 grammes of a mixture containing 11.7 grammes of heroin.

And on the same day, in your premises where you lived, you were found to be trafficking in 518 grammes of a crystalline solid which contained 227 grammes of ‘Ice’ and 116 grammes of a mixture containing 7.45 grammes of heroin. To add to the tally, there was also 22.1 grammes of a solid containing 17.2 grammes of cocaine. In addition, 156 tablets containing 218 grammes of midazolam and 50 tablets containing 0.22 grammes of methadone.

It is agreed that the total value of the drugs in Counts 3 and 4 is $353,825.

I am going to deal with the most serious counts on the indictment first, those are Counts 3 and 4. I accept that given your obvious drug addiction, you would have taken some of these drugs yourself and I have taken that into account in determining the length of your sentence. It is very much to your credit, or at least a contribute to your realism, that you pleaded guilty to these offences, albeit not at an early stage, in the proceedings against you and I have given you due credit for that in determining the length of your sentence.

What is not to your credit is your shocking criminal record. On 17 separate occasions you have appeared before the courts of Hong Kong on drug-related offences. You last appeared in the High Court on a trafficking charge in 2012. Also not to your credit is the fact that you committed the offences in Counts 3 and 4 on the indictment whilst on bail for the possession offence in the 2nd count.

The drugs that you trafficked in were a very assorted mixture. There was ‘Ice’, by far the largest quantity; there was heroin, there was cocaine and there was this small quantity of midazolam and methadone. It is well recognised that ‘Ice’, heroin and cocaine are the most potent of these drugs.

In arriving at your sentence, I have had due regard to what Mr Pun has put before me and I have applied what is known as both the combined approach and the totality principle in arriving at your sentences. Although separate charges had to be laid against you in respect of the dangerous drugs you had in the street and the drugs you had in your flat, I regard your trafficking in those drugs as being one course of criminal conduct.

Given the harmful nature of the drugs involved and ignoring the very small quantities of midazolam and methadone, I am of the view that had you been found guilty after trial of these two counts on the indictment, I, following the well-established sentencing guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal and given your criminal record and your temerity in committing the trafficking offences whilst on bail for the possession offence, would have sent you to prison for 15 years.

Because of your plea of guilty and because I accept that some of your stash of drugs must have been for your own self-consumption, I will reduce that sentence of 15 years by as much as one-third, to one of 10 years’ imprisonment.

As individual sentences have to be passed on you in respect of each count, that is Counts 3 and 4, your sentence on the 1st count, which deals with by far the largest quantity of dangerous drugs, is one of 10 years’ imprisonment, reduced from a starting point of 15 years’ imprisonment. Your sentence on the 3rd count is one of 6 years’ imprisonment, reduced from a starting point of 9 years’ imprisonment. As I have said, I regard your conduct as being one of continuing criminal behaviour and I am therefore ordering that both sentences are to be served concurrently, at the same time.

For the 2nd count, the possession offence where you were caught smoking ‘Ice’ at the Apliu Street flat in the early hours of the morning, your sentence is a nominal 6 months’ imprisonment, reduced down from a starting point of 9 months, which would have been your sentence for that offence had you been found guilty after trial. Again, that sentence is to be served concurrently with the sentences on the 3rd and 4th counts.

That means that your total term of imprisonment is one of 10 years.