HKSAR v. CHAN HUNG HOI

 DCCC344/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 344 OF 2009

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  I convicted the defendant of two charges after trial. The 1st charge is one of trafficking in dangerous drugs, the total quantity was 10.44 grammes of heroin hydrochloride and a small quantity of midazolam. The 2nd charge related to the defendant dealing with property, knowing or believing that it represented the proceeds of drug trafficking. The sum of money was involved was $306,760.

2.  The facts of the case which I found proved were that on 21 February 2009 the defendant was seen by police officers on Queen’s Road East in Wan Chai, opposite to where he lived. He was acting suspiciously according to the officers and he was stopped and searched. Five tablets of midazolam were recovered from a garment he was wearing, and a further search revealed 113 packets of heroin which were located in his underpants.

3.  Over the next few days whilst in custody he excreted 7 plastic bags containing heroin and a plastic straw containing a further tablet of midazolam. The defendant asserted they were all for his own consumption.

4.  At the police station the defendant was found to be in possession of HK$4,742, Renminbi of 167 and US$201.

5.  Police officers later attended the premises occupied by the defendant at Wan Chai. He occupies a small cubicle there which is one of seven in those premises.

6.  Before the search he told the police officers that he had $300,000 in his room and he said that this was the proceeds of successful gambling in Macau. The officers searched his room and in an unlocked drawer in a cabinet by his bedside they recovered a total of $306,760.

7.  The defendant has an appalling record. He has appeared before courts on 26 previous occasions. 22 of those occasions were for drug-related offences. He has been convicted 17 times for possession of dangerous drugs and 5 times for trafficking in dangerous drugs. He has four convictions for theft, one for criminal intimidation and one for dealing with property known or believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable offence. He was last discharged from prison on 2 June 2008.

8.  The defendant has been a drug addict for about 10 years told the court he. He is single. His parents have passed away and he has no siblings. At the time of his arrest he was living alone in the cubicle in Queen’s Road East in Wan Chai.

9.  I am told that the defendant has had an unfortunate upbringing. He was an orphan by the time he was 3 and the maternal aunt who brought him up died in 1979. He has no family members in Hong Kong and lives a lonely existence. He suffers from diabetes and suffers from pain in the area of his waist.

10.  The defendant obviously knows as well as this court what the tariffs are for this type of offence. I notice that in 2004 he was sent to prison for 3 years and 4 months for trafficking which should be equivalent to a starting point of 5 years. He knows that 5 years is the starting point for the first offence. The question really is whether I should increase that sentence given his appalling record. The usual sentences do not appear to act as a deterrent on this particular defendant.

11.  As regards the 2nd charge, I take a starting point of 2 years’ imprisonment. I considered whether or not that sentence should run concurrently or consecutively.

12.  I have considered the question of totality. I propose to leave Charge 1 at 5 years, Charge 2, 2 years’ imprisonment, and order that one year of that sentence should run consecutively to Charge 1, making a total of 6 years’ imprisonment.