HKSAR v. KWOK FEI HUNG

 DCCC726/2008

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 726 OF 2008

 ----------------------

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

Reasons for Sentence

1.  Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. 

2.  You have admitted that on 23 June 2008 at Room D, 3rd Floor, No. 156 Apliu Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, in Hong Kong, you unlawfully trafficked in a dangerous drug, namely 16.87 grammes of a mixture containing 11.8 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.

3.  Acting on information, the police laid ambush outside that flat on 23 June, and at 1300 hours you were seen opening the door of the flat, about to leave the flat.  You were intercepted and brought back into the flat.  A search was conducted upon you whereby inside your right front trousers pocket a cigarette box was found containing two plastic resealable bags.  One bag contained some white powder and the other some white solid.  You stated that you were delivering the white powder to a park for another person. 

4.  You were arrested for trafficking in a dangerous drug and under caution you stated that you helped Fei Tim deliver the two packets of white powder to Nam Cheong Street Park.

5.  At a subsequent interview you stated that the two packets of white substance seized were No. 4 heroin.  Earlier that day at about 8 am you had met Fei Tim at Apliu Street and Fei Tim offered you HK$200 for you to traffic in that heroin.  You were on your way out to put the heroin on a flower bed for those purposes, that is in Nam Cheong Street Park.  You had spent the money Fei Tim had given you.

6.  Your counsel, Mr Boey Chung, has made full and detailed mitigation on your behalf and I have taken into account all that he has had to say.

7.  You are 54 years of age, born in Hong Kong, and you have 29 previous convictions, of which 17 are drug related.  In 1987 you had one conviction for possession of dangerous drugs for the purposes of unlawful trafficking.  The remainder of your drug-related convictions relate to either possession of dangerous drugs or possession of equipment.

8.  Mr Boey has submitted that the conviction for the unlawful trafficking in 1987 when you were approximately 34 years of age could not have been of a particularly large amount of drugs as you were sentenced to DATC.

9.  You are not divorced as stated in your antecedents but are separated from your wife who is a Thai and she has gone back to Thailand and no longer living in Hong Kong.

10.  As I can see, you are on CSSA and clearly are drug-dependent.  It appears that you were obviously trying to make some money, perhaps to pay for your drug dependency. 

11.  As Mr Boey rightly reflects, it is the quantity of drugs that the court looks at when sentencing you.  The drugs involved were heroin, and the authority is of course that of R v Lau Tak Ming.  You had trafficked in 11.8 grammes of heroin hydrochloride and, having regard to the guidelines, I take a starting point 5 years’ imprisonment had I convicted you after trial. 

12.  You have, however, pleaded guilty to this charge, co-operated with the police, saved the court time, and I shall give you full credit for your plea of guilty and reduce that term to one of 3 years 4 months’ imprisonment, to which you are so sentenced.