HKSAR v. BO KA SHING

DCCC 316/2014

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 316 OF 2014

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  The defendant has pleaded guilty to four charges of trafficking in dangerous drugs. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of possession of apparatus fit and intended for inhalation of a dangerous drug. In respect of that charge, the prosecution accepted the plea and I order that that charge should remain on the court file, not to be proceeded with without the leave of this court or the Court of Appeal.

2.  The 1st charge was committed on 2 January 2014.  A plainclothes police officer, PW1, posed as a customer at an amusement game centre in Yuen Long.  He was approached by the defendant who offered to sell him some “Ice”.  It was arranged that they should meet later on.  The defendant told him that each packet of “Ice” was to be $100.  They met outside a convenience store later on Castle Peak Road and the officer bought the drugs from the defendant.  The weight of the narcotic content of the drug was 0.05 grammes of “Ice”.

3.  A officer was on duty nearby and he followed the defendant, stopped him and made a note of his personal particulars. 

4.  A few days later, on 5 January, PW1 again went to the game centre.  While smoking outside the centre, the defendant again approached him and offered him “Ice” worth $300.  They agreed to meet a few minutes later outside a nearby car park, and drugs weighing 0.40 grammes of “Ice” were sold. 

5.  A further transaction took place on 7 January involving 0.13 grammes of “Ice” for $200.

6.  On 29 January, at 9.45 in the morning, the defendant was intercepted at the staircase of the 5th floor of a building in Yuen Long.  When arrested he was found to be in possession of nine packets containing 2.29 grammes of “Ice”. 

7.  He was later picked out by PW1 at an identification parade as being the person who had sold him “Ice” on three previous occasions.

8.  The street value of all the drugs was just over $1,300.

9.  The defendant has appeared before the court on three previous occasions.  In 2004, for acting as a member of a triad society, he was placed on probation for 15 months.  In 2008, for possession of dangerous drugs, he was fined $1,500.  In 2010, for a more serious offence, he was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months, and I am told that he was released in that sentence on 18 August 2012.

10.  The defendant is aged 26.  He was educated to Form 3 standard worked previously as a transportation worker.  I am told that in his younger days, he joined a triad society but he is no longer involved with the society.  I was told that the defendant was working as a part-time vehicle attendant earning $350 per day but that income was not stable, and he was only earning about $7,000 per month.   

11.  I am told that the defendant got into financial difficulties due to a business venture which had turned sour.  He had collected about $100,000 for this venture which he had lent to others and the business had failed.  I am told that he was depressed about that and later went on to consume “Ice”. 

12.  As counsel has rightly acknowledged, the only real mitigation in this case is the fact that he has pleaded guilty.  I am told that in relation to the Charge 4, which involved 2.29 grammes of “Ice”, half of that was for his own consumption.

13.  The starting point for offences of this kind is 3 years’ imprisonment.  The defendant is to be given credit for his guilty plea.  So the starting point for each of the four offences will be 2 years’ imprisonment. 

14.  I have to consider the question of totality. Counsel has made the valid point that the defendant could have been arrested after the first offence on 2 January.  Of course, this would have involved the exposure of the undercover police officer, but I take that into account when considering the question of totality.  What I have decided is that 4 months of the sentences on Charges 2, 3 and 4 shall each be served

consecutively to the previous sentences, making a total of 36 months’ imprisonment.