THE QUEEN v. WONG WING YUI

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JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

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Silke, V. -P.

Sentence:

1. On 9th March we allowed the applicant's appeal against his conviction on a charge of being in possession of dangerous drugs for the purpose of unlawful trafficking and we substituted, under the provisions of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap.134 - "the Ordinance" - a conviction for simple possession. The applicant's sentence of 15 months imprisonment obviously needed to be reviewed.

2. We were unable to deal with the matter on that day in the light of the provisions of section 54A of the Ordinance which obliges a Court, before imposing any custodial sentence upon a person convicted for offence against section 8 - that is simple possession of dangerous drugs - to first consider a report from the Commissioner of Correctional Services on the suitability of such person for cure and rehabilitation and on the availability of places.

3. There are contained in section 54A(1) (A) certain exceptions, none of which applied in this case. It was therefore necessary, before we passed any custodial sentence for the substituted offence, to call for a Drug Addiction Treatment Centre Report. This we have now received. All this caused a great deal of unnecessary work to be done by those who prepared these matters for the Commissioner of Correctional Services. It might well be worth the consideration of those who keep the criminal law under review that the circumstances of a matter such as this be provided for as an exception.

4. Turning to sentence: in the light of the circumstances here we would have thought sentence somewhere in the region of 9 months' imprisonment would have been right for simple possession. As the applicant has been in custody since 22nd August 1989, in our judgment the justice of the case would be satisfied by our imposing now such sentence as would effect his immediate release and we so order.