COURT: Yes, I do not wish to delay proceedings any further and so I will sentence now. Defendant, please stand.
The defendant had pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug namely 12.24 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 12.17 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
The facts relevant to these proceedings were that on 16 May last year, police officers mounted an anti-dangerous drug operation in the vicinity of Kowloon City. At about 8.28 pm, they saw the defendant walking on the street carrying her handbag and holding two pink paper bags in her hand. She was intercepted and the drugs which is the subject matter of the charge, was found in the plastic bag.
Under caution, the defendant admitted that she had bought the drugs for $3,000 and intended to sell it to her friend at $4,000. The estimated retail value of the drug seized was in the region of HK$9,200. The defendant subsequently, in a video-recorded interview admitted that she had bumped into a friend who wanted to buy “ice,” so she then went and bought the packet of “ice,” intending to sell it to that friend.
The defendant is aged 22 and has a clear record in Hong Kong. She was quite well educated and at the time of arrest, she was a student of the Vocational Training Council.
Now, I accept Mr Percy’s mitigation that the defendant is fully remorseful for what she had done. Mr Percy did convey a message from the defendant to this court, asking for the court to call for a probation report to understand the background, particularly of her parents’ divorce. I did not accede to that invitation to call for a report because, at the end of the day, I do understand that the breakdown of a marriage causes highly traumatic consequences, particularly for the children of the family. At the end of the day, whichever parent was at fault or not at fault, does not really matter, because the traumatic consequence, the emotional consequence is still the same for the children of the marriage.
I can see from the very useful letter written by Ms Cheung that she belongs to the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong and is an outreach social worker and has known the defendant since 2008. It is a sad tale of the defendant’s father indulging in gambling, debt being run up and the family breaking down, resulting in the defendant and her brother being fostered out to a foster family.
There was not only psychiatric turmoil but also physical violence. It is a sad reflection of our times that this situation is not unique and many families do go through similar kind of trauma. But that does not lessen the turmoil felt by the defendant in those years and I quite understand why the defendant then turned to her so-called friends and sought some kind of relief through playing with them and at the end, indulging in drugs.
But in understanding, I do not condone that action. It was foolish and it was a childish way to act and it was a way of actually harming yourself. So, I do understand, against that background, that the defendant then started her walk on a road that ended up here in this court. But amidst all this misery the defendant is very lucky that today, she still has the love of her family and also her fiancée who is giving her this impetus to want to start a new life, and a better one.
It is also a sign of the defendant’s goodness that she also has the support of Ms Chung, the outreach social worker, Mr Wan the social worker who is attending to her and they have come to court to support her. And the defendant is also very lucky to have Mr Percy represent her, who has said everything he could possibly say on her behalf in mitigation, and this court is encouraged by the fact that the defendant has resolved to study during the time she is in prison and looking forward to becoming a better person and leading a better life once she is released.
Well, having said all that, I also have to take into account the fact that it is a never ending battle in our courts on behalf of our authorities in fighting this evil trade of drug trafficking. Huge profits are made on the back of a lot of people’s suffering by these drug traffickers, purely for monetary gain. So the courts have laid down sentencing guidelines for trafficking in different types of drug.
For the drugs in this case, methamphetamine hydrochloride, the Court of Appeal has laid down guidelines for sentence in the case of Ching Kwok Hung in 1991 where it is recommended for trafficking in between 10 to 70 grammes of “ice,” a sentence of 7 to 10 years’ imprisonment is recommended. In this case, the amount was 12.17 grammes, which would merit a 7 year starting point.
The court’s policy is to give a normal one-third discount for pleas of guilty to recognise the remorse of the defendant and also to recognise that in doing so, court’s time and public funds are saved. It is also the policy of these courts to recognise useful assistance to the authorities, because it is based on public interest to prevent, detect and prosecute crimes which is in the public interest.
This court is grateful to Mr Cheung for supplying two cases relevant to this matter and I have considered, in relation to this issue, matters which have been disclosed to me in chambers and also following the cases, I would make a reduction of about 45 per cent to the sentence. So thus reducing the sentence to one of 3 years and 10 months.