COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely 8.54 kilogrammes of a crystalline solid containing 4.37 kilogrammes of ketamine. He has been committed to this court for sentencing.
The facts show that in the afternoon of 1 June 2016, the defendant was intercepted by police officers while he was walking along Hing Ning Road, in Kwai Chung. He was carrying a black bag, inside of which was found 24 plastic bags containing the drugs in the charge. Upon being arrested and cautioned, he said to the police officers that he had just collected this ketamine and that he was conveying it to Tseung Kwan O for $3,200.
The defendant gave a more detailed account in a subsequent video-recorded interview and that he was instructed to pick up these drugs from some bushes in Kwai Chung and was awaiting instructions as to where to deliver those drugs.
The estimated street value of the dangerous drug seized is in the region of $1,844,640.
The defendant is aged 24 and already has two previous convictions in 2013 for trafficking in dangerous drugs. He was sent to prison by the District Court. He did not learn his lesson.
Mr Kwan has said everything he could possibly say on behalf of the defendant, the sad account of a young man’s life gone wrong. He, after leaving school, had managed to find several jobs but yet he became unemployed, became a drug addict and was, prior to his arrest, allegedly on a $15,000 per month drug habit. Yet, as Mr Kwan indicated, his family is still here to show support for him. So this defendant is a lucky young man because he still has the concern and love of his father and grandmother which is a lot more than can be said for many young persons these days.
It is inevitable that for such a large quantity, the defendant will go to prison for a long time, but hopefully, for the sake of his father and grandmother, the defendant can find that during this time of incarceration, he can learn a proper trade so that when he comes out, he can turn over a new leaf. If not, it will be the beginning of a slippery slope to his own destruction.
As Mr Kwan has very helpfully pointed out, the sentencing guidelines for ketamine has been initially laid down in the case of Hii Siew Cheng in 2009, and subsequently, in the case of Sin Chung Kin in 2013, the Court of Appeal has said that for trafficking 3,000 grammes of ketamine, the starting point sentence after trial should be no less than 20 years.
The Court of Appeal also, in the headnote in that case, pointed out that where more than 3,000 grammes of ketamine was involved, the starting point could exceed 20 years although the increase in sentence should not be proportional to the increase in drug quantity and it would be for the court to pass such a sentence as was appropriate in the circumstances of the particular case. So what the Court of Appeal is saying is that it is not a mathematical calculation and that the court should consider all the matters in front of it in a particular case to arrive at a sentence which is appropriate.
After considering all the facts in this case and the background of the defendant, I consider that an appropriate starting point is 20½ years’ imprisonment after trial.
I give the defendant the full one-third discount for his early plea and remorse.
So the defendant will be going to prison for 13 years and 8 months.