On 8 February this year police officers were keeping you under observation. They saw you leave a parked car and enter a building in Ngan Fung Street and then come out of that building again.
As you were approaching the car the police came up to you. They told you that they were police officers. Your response was to run off. When they caught up with you, you put up a fierce struggle but eventually they subdued you.
The drugs which are the subject of the charge of possession of dangerous drugs, namely, 2.31 grammes of a powder containing 1.8 grammes of ketamine were found inside a cigarette packet in one of your trouser pockets. It is accepted that those drugs were for your own consumption.
The police then searched your home which was in a building in the same street. In your bedroom they found three plastic bags containing the drugs which are the subject of the 2nd charge, 500.54 grammes of a powder containing 433.86 grammes of ketamine. You admitted that you were trafficking those drugs.
The police then searched the car from which you had emerged earlier. Behind the passenger seat of that car they found five plastic bags containing the drugs that are the subject of the 3rd count, namely, 1,247.54 grammes of a powder containing 1,071.87 grammes of ketamine. You admitted that you were about to make a delivery of those drugs.
I have listened to all that Mr Laskey has eloquently said on your behalf. I also take into account the letter that you have sent to the court in which you indicate that this will never happen again.
It is clear from the fact that so many of your family members have attended court today that you come from a supportive family. You have let them down badly by committing these offences.
Apart from a driving offence you are a man of no previous convictions. However, as I am sure Mr Laskey has told you, previous good character is something that carries little weight in mitigation when it comes to offences of this gravity.
You are an adult and would have been fully aware of the serious consequences which would follow if you were caught trafficking in dangerous drugs.
On Charge 1, the charge of possession, I am adopting a starting point of 6 months’ imprisonment. On Charge 2 I adopt a starting point of 10 years’ imprisonment. On Charge 3 I adopt a starting point of 14 years’ imprisonment.
The only real mitigation in your case are your pleas of guilty. Those pleas entitle you to the usual discount of one-third.
I accordingly pass sentence as follows. On Charge 1 I sentence you to 4 months’ imprisonment. On Charge 2 I sentence you to 80 months’ imprisonment, that’s 6 years 8 months. On Charge 3 I sentence you to 112 months, that’s 9 years 4 months’ imprisonment.
I order all those sentences to run concurrently and therefore the total sentence passed upon you today is 9
years 4 months’ imprisonment.