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HCCC152/2009
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 152 OF 2009
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HKSAR |
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v. |
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Cheng Cheuk-him, William
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| Before: |
Deputy High Court Judge Line in Court |
| Date: |
8 July 2009 at 10.00 am |
| Present: |
Mr Vincent Wong, SPP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr Leung Chiu-lam, Paul, instructed by Edmund W H Chow & Co., assigned by the Director of Legal Aid, for the Accused |
| Offence: |
Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物) |
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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case
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COURT: Stand up, please. I have to sentence you on your plea of guilty for trafficking in 156 grammes of ketamine. The facts reveal that you were selling it to feed your own habit. You would have been told that the starting point for sentence is set out in guideline cases which are based on the nature of the drug and the weight of it. You fall in the bracket which ranges from 50 to 300 grammes of ketamine, attracting a starting point after trial for sentence of 6 to 9 years. Therefore if one did it entirely mathematically the starting point would be something just under 7½ years.
I have read the letters that your family have written and I have read the letter you wrote. You will know that the sentences for drug trafficking are severe ones. Your case is a vivid illustration of why that is so. Because, as you say, it is pitiful that drugs have brought you to this. I know that you and your family appreciate it. There are many cases of people like you - drug trafficking - before the court, and we have to be consistent in the way we sentence. Put bluntly, it is no good to have two men in adjacent cells who have done exactly the same thing with different sentences. It leads to a real sense of injustice and grievance. So there is limited weight and effect I can give to what is in the letters.
I shall take a starting point of 7 years, and I shall give you a third off for the plea. That results in a sentence of 4 years and 8 months. The starting point is deliberately at the bottom end of the bracket, and I do that for the reasons urged upon me in the mitigation. I do point out that you pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court. There are plenty of people who plead guilty at the court door with the jury waiting or shortly before their trial. They receive the same one-third.
So the sentence is 4 years and 8 months. You could not have hoped, in my view, for a lesser one.
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