HKSAR v. UBAH JOEL CHIDIEBERE

HCCC 65/2016

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 65 OF 2016

-----------------

------------------

---------------------------------

Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

---------------------------------

COURT: Mr Ubah, you pleaded guilty to trafficking in dangerous drugs before the Eastern Magistracy on 29 January 2016 and you have confirmed that plea today.

The summary of facts to which you have pleaded guilty, has been read out to you and you have confirmed through your counsel that you accept them. In essence, you were caught red‑handed at Chek Lap Kok International Airport on 14 July 2015, having travelled to Hong Kong via Dubai from Nigeria and you were found to have ingested 55 pellets weighing 993 grammes of which 506 grammes was found to be cocaine.

At the time of your arrest, you had in your possession three mobile phones, HK$80, US$4,000 and Nigerian Naira 5,050. Although you remained silent under caution, as is your right, you did eventually admit to bringing the drugs into Hong Kong in return for US$2,000.

The street value of the drugs you trafficked into Hong Kong was $1,156,845.

You are 38 years of age now and a Nigerian passport holder and in Hong Kong you have a clear record. In interview, you said that you were unemployed when you agreed to carry these drugs into Hong Kong, but you have also said that you were a business man in Lagos earning US$270 a month.

However, your counsel has said on your behalf that you were significantly in debt at the time and that you were coerced into trafficking in dangerous drugs. The US$2,000 was going to be used to extinguish that debt. You say you have a wife and two young children, one of which was born in October of last year and whom you have not seen, sadly.

I have listened very carefully to everything that Mr Kelly had said on your behalf. But as I have said, Mr Ubah, in a matter as serious as this, there is in fact very little mitigation which can be advanced which will affect sentence. This is an extremely serious offence which causes great harm to other people. You and those like you who think that they can make some money very easily by carrying dangerous drugs into our country must be shown that crime does not pay and that we take a very dim view of people who traffic in drugs.

I have taken into account the fact that you wish to play your part in persuading others not to do what you have done. But for you, it is too late. I do hope that you continue to liaise with Father Wotherspoon in his efforts to educate people who live outside of this jurisdiction, on the dangers of trafficking in dangerous drugs.

For trafficking in dangerous drugs in 506 grammes of cocaine, you fall to be considered under the guideline set out in HKSAR v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR 370 and in that case for trafficking in between 400 and 600 grammes of cocaine, the guideline sentence after trial is between 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment. For trafficking in 506 grammes of cocaine, the starting point after trial for sentence is 17 years and 6 months.

There is also the international element of your crime which involves bringing those drugs into our country from Nigeria, and for this aggravating element I enhance your sentence by 2 years which makes a total of 19 years and 6 months.

Unfortunately, as I have said more than once, there has been no significant mitigation advanced which can reduce that sentence further and so I will of course give you the one-third discount you are entitled to for entering your plea at the very first opportunity.

You are thereby sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 13 years.