HKSAR v. YAM WEI GIAN

HCCC 46/2017

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 46 OF 2017

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

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COURT:

Defendant, you pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, before a magistrate at the Eastern Magistracy on 13 February 2017. Upon your plea of guilty, you have been committed to the Court of First Instance for sentence.

You have confirmed your plea of guilty to this court and you have admitted that on 8 August 2016, outside Hang Yee House, Cheung Hang Estate, Tsing Yi, New Territories, you unlawfully trafficked in 1.94 kilogrammes of a crystalline solid containing 1.85 kilogrammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.

On that day in question, at about 8.10 pm, you were intercepted by police officers on the ground floor of Hang Chun House, Cheung Hang Estate, Tsing Yi. Upon search of the black recycle bag you were carrying, two packets of the drugs as stated in the charge were found inside. You were arrested and, under caution, you said you just helped someone take the drug ‘Ice’ to Cheung Hang Estate for a remuneration of $10,000.

The street value of all the ‘Ice’ seized was $671,240.

In your video-recorded interview, you stated that on that day, you were told to deliver these two packets of drugs to a buyer at Cheung Hang Estate, Tsing Yi, and thereafter, the buyer would pay you $10,000. You wanted to do this to make quick money by delivering ‘Ice’. You had been jobless in the last three months, but you had worked as a casual worker at a fast food shop in Tsuen Wan with a daily income of $400. You had been a street sleeper in Sham Shui Po and Yau Ma Tei for the last five years.

In mitigation by your counsel, Mr James McGowan, has informed this court that you were in fact an abuser of ‘Ice’ and at the time of you giving this video-recorded interview, you were under the influence of ‘Ice’ and upon admittance to Lai Chi Kok, you were, in fact, found to be experiencing drug withdrawal symptoms. He, however, has made clear that he is not mitigating on the basis that any of these drugs were for your own consumption.

Your strongest mitigating factor is your plea of guilty very early on, at the committal stage.

You have 18 previous convictions on 13 previous occasions. Four of those are related to dangerous drugs. Two for possession of dangerous drugs in 1998 and 2014 and two similar to trafficking in dangerous drugs in 1998 for which you were sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, concurrent on both charges. I do not consider that an aggravating factor such as to enhance the starting point as that offence took place now almost 20 years ago.

You are 40 years of age and have a daughter aged 14.

The appropriate guidelines in this case for trafficking in ‘Ice’ is that as laid down in HKSAR v Tam Yi Chun, whereby it stated that for amounts of 600 grammes and over, the same tariffs as are described in Abdallah for those quantities of heroin are applied for ‘Ice’. Therefore, the starting point guidelines for traffickers after trial, for 1,200 to 4,000 grammes, is one of between 23 to 26 years’ imprisonment.

Taking into account the quantity of drugs that you were trafficking in, that is 1.85 kilogrammes of ‘Ice’, had you been convicted after trial, an appropriate starting point would have been one of 23 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.

Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty, that term shall be reduced to one of 15 years and 8 months, to which you shall so serve.

I will just note here that in Mr McGowan’s mitigation, there may well be other matters which may arise in the future which may well reduce your sentence, but these are matters to be considered at a later occasion.