HKSAR v. KO KA YEE

 DCCC724/2010

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONGSPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 724 OF 2010

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Ko Ka-yee, you have been convicted on your own plea of trafficking in 21.4 grammes of a powder containing 18.03 grammes of ketamine. Those drugs were found taped to the cardboard bottoms of two paper bags which you had brought into Hong Kong from Shenzhen in the early hours of the morning on 8 May this year. The drugs had an estimated retail value in Hong Kong of $2,600-odd.

2.  You claimed that the drugs had been given to you by a friend and that you intended to bring them into Hong Kong and sell them to your friends. It appears that the person you referred to as a friend was in fact a drug dealer. You were 17 at the time you committed this offence and still at school. You are only just 18 this week and have never been before the courts before.

3.  These, however, are factors to which the court can attach limited significance in offences as serious as trafficking in dangerous drugs. The steps you took to conceal the drugs indicate that you knew you were committing a serious offence. I do not accept that you would not have known that serious consequences would follow if you were caught.

4.  Courts in Hong Kong take a very serious view of those who traffic in dangerous drugs. You yourself would be aware of the evils of drug addiction. Your lawyer, Mr Pang, will have told you that the normal starting point for those who traffic in the quantity of drugs involved in this case is between 4 and 6 years’ imprisonment. However, because of your age and the fact that you had not been before the courts before as well as the need to restore some discipline in your life, I requested a report as to your suitability for detention in a training centre. If it had been an option available to the court, it would probably have resulted in your detention in a training centre for a period not dissimilar to the term of imprisonment the court would otherwise have imposed on you. Unfortunately, because of your drug addiction, it appears that this is not an option available to the court.

5.  The gravity of the offence leaves the court with no alternative but to pass a sentence of imprisonment. I adopt the starting point of 4 years’ imprisonment. Your plea of guilty entitles you to the usual discount of one-third. Exceptionally, I am prepared to reduce your sentence by a further 8 months to reflect your youth at the time of the offence. A reduction of sentence on account of your age is not something that will be available to you ever again.

6.  You told Miss Tang of the rehabilitation unit at Lai King that you intended to stop taking drugs in the future and hoped to resume your education. You said similar things in your letter to the court. I hope you can abide by those promises. If when you are released from prison you return to the life that you have been leading recently, your health will be destroyed and you will waste your life in and out of prison. You must take the opportunity to turn over a new leaf when you are released.

7.  I sentence you to 2 years' imprisonment.