HKSAR v. CHAN CHO HO

DCCC 73/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 73 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1. The defendant has pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap.134.

2. On 8 November last year he was arrested for trafficking 80 grammes of a powder containing 60 grammes of ketamine. 

3. The facts of this case are very straightforward.

4. A team of patrolling police officers found behind a fire hose of a lobby on the 21st Floor of a house in Siu Sai Wan Estate a bag of drugs.  With the drugs was a small electronic scale and some empty plastic bags.  The police waited for somebody to approach or handle these drugs.  Not long after, the defendant appeared and opened the container of the fire-hose reel.  He retrieved the bag of drugs and paraphernalia.  As he was about to leave the police came forward and arrested him.  At the scene he admitted that the drugs in the bag were ketamine. 

5. At the time of his arrest he had some HK$7,000-odd on his person, and the street value of the ketamine was about $9,300. 

6. At the time of his arrest the defendant was 17 years and 3 months old.  He had a clear record.  He has been in custody since his arrest some 4 months ago. 

7. On the last occasion I heard full mitigation, and received many letters of mitigation from the defendant, his mother, various social workers, his previous principal, and an Eastern District Councillor.  I have had sight of his previous good school reports, as well as his and his mother’s psychiatric reports. 

8. I called for a training centre report.  The details of that report supported what I was told in mitigation.

9. The defendant came to Hong Kong in 1997 to be reunited with is father.  However, as time went on his father and mother’s relationship deteriorated.  I have been told that his father was abusive and would use violence against the defendant.  His parents divorced in 2009.  One could describe the defendant as coming from a broken family.  Probably as a result of her marital relationship, the defendant’s mother was diagnosed as suffering from psychiatric problems and has been receiving treatment.

10. The defendant, himself, was diagnosed when he was in primary school with ADHD.  He was receiving drug treatment until 2009. It does not say in the report why that stopped.  One could say the defendant’s family life was non-existent.  Another factor that has affected the defendant’s teenage life is that his grandmother who he was close to has died.  So, with his grandmother gone, his father out of his life, and his mother ill, there was no parental control over the defendant.

11. As a 16-year-old the defendant had complete freedom, which is a recipe for disaster.  He became associated with bad peers in his neighbourhood, even joining a triad gang.  He was a good student in primary school, despite suffering from ADHD, but with no parental control his academic performance soon deteriorated and he left school early.  He has had some employment, but not steady employment, which meant he probably he did not have much financial freedom and not much money.  He was then introduced to a method of making easy money trafficking dangerous drug.

12. Drug traffickers will target youngsters to do their courier work, and young people are attracted to the easy money they can make.  The defendant told the officer of this report that he had trafficked drugs for about a week before he was arrested.

13. As I have said, he has been in remand for about 4 months now.  He has had time to reflect on his mistakes, and he says he is full of remorse and regret.  His mother is sick with worry and he is sorry for putting his mother in this situation.

14. I called for a training centre report, but I told him on the last occasion that it really is not an appropriate sentence because the quantity of drugs here is significant. It would be an exceptional course to take.  However, having read this report and considered the factors as I have just set out, I will accept this defendant comes from a background that does deserve some sympathy. 

15. A period of comprehensive disciplinary training coupled with statutory supervision after that period of training may be what this defendant needs to get his young life back on track, so I am prepared to give the defendant a chance and not consider what would be a starting point of 6 years’ imprisonment.  I will consider a training centre order, but the defendant must understand he will only be given one chance.  There will not be a second chance.

16. For this offence I will sentence him to a training centre order.