CRIMINAL CASE NO. 32 OF 2009
COURT: Li Wai-hung, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking in a dangerous drug as well as to possession of a dangerous drug. You have a criminal record which includes an earlier offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug for which you were sentenced in the High Court to serve 5 years' imprisonment.
You are clearly a man who is, or has been, actively engaged in the filthy trade of trafficking in dangerous drugs. The law regards trafficking in a dangerous drug to be a very serious offence, so serious that the maximum punishment is life imprisonment.
I know that your counsel, Mr Laskey, will have told you that there are very well-established guidelines set down by the Court of Appeal. These are guidelines as to the sentences judges and magistrates should pass on those who traffic in dangerous drugs.
Mr Laskey will also have told you that judges and magistrates are expected to follow those guideless unless there are very strong reasons for them not to do so. I have to tell you that there are no such very strong reasons in your case.
You have handed in before me a letter from a District Councillor. Quite frankly, that was of no help whatsoever. Unless the District Councillor is well acquainted with you, which this gentleman apparently is not, such letters are not only a waste of the court's time but a waste of the District Councillor's time. I hope not to see such letters put before sentencing judges in the future. They serve no useful purpose whatsoever. However, that will in no way be held against you.
There are no mitigating factors in the circumstances of your commission of this offence. There is certainly nothing in your background or your criminal record which is of any mitigating value whatsoever. I make it clear that the sentences I am going to pass on you are in no way aggravated because of your previous convictions.
Your only mitigation lies in the fact that you admitted this offence to the police when you were arrested and co-operated with them. You pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, before the magistrate on 16 January this year. Those admissions and those pleas show realism on your part and an acceptance of the inevitable. They also indicate a degree of remorse.
You are entitled, and you will receive, a substantial reduction in sentence to reflect your co-operation and your pleas of guilty. I do not, however, believe that the reduction I can give you can be more than the one-third reduction which is normally given to defendants in your circumstances.
I have to tell you that had you taken this matter to trial - had you pleaded not guilty, had you fought the case - and had a jury found you guilty of the offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug, I, following the guidelines I have spoken of already, would have sent you to prison for at least 11 years. I am reducing that sentence by one-third. That means you will go to prison for 7 years and 4 months for the offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug, the cocaine that was found in the car.
For the offence of possession of a dangerous drug, the cocaine found in your flat, had you fought this case and been found guilty, I would have sent you to prison for 2 years. I am reducing that by one-third to reflect your co-operation and pleas of guilty. Your sentence on the possession count is one of 1 year and 4 months' imprisonment.
I regard both offences as arising out of the same course of criminal enterprise and I am ordering that you serve your sentences concurrently, which means at the same time. That means the total length of your period of imprisonment is
7 years and 4 months.