|
HCCC136/2009
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 136 OF 2009
-----------------
-----------------
|
Before:
|
Deputy High Court Judge Mackintosh
|
|
Date:
|
2 July 2009 at 10.05 am
|
|
Present:
|
Ms Laura Ng, SPP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr Paul C L Leung, instructed by Messrs Li, Wong, Lam & W I Cheung, for the Accused
|
|
Offence:
|
Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物)
|
-------------------------------------------
Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case
-------------------------------------------
COURT: Stand up, Ho Chun-cheong. You have pleaded guilty to trafficking in dangerous drugs, namely 350 grammes of ketamine. That was worth around about $50,000 in street value.
As you have been told - Mr Leung tells me this on your behalf - you have been told that sentence for trafficking in dangerous drugs is based invariably on guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal for various types of drugs. This is so that all traffickers in a particular type of drug are sentenced on the same basis, which is fair to everybody.
I am told about your family circumstances, and I have heard what has been written in letters by both you and your mother to the court. And your mother is here in court as well today. But, as has been acknowledged on your behalf, those family circumstances can have little impact on sentence now.
What is important in sentence so far as you are concerned is the fact that you have pleaded guilty. That will result in a discount of one-third on the starting point for sentence. Included in that discount of one-third - which is quite a generous discount - are the other factors which have been mentioned to me by Mr Leung, your family circumstances and so forth. And the discount, as I say, is significant because, according to the guideline case for ketamine relatively recently laid down, a case called Hii Siew Cheng, the starting point for trafficking in 350 grammes of ketamine is 9½ years’ imprisonment. That is the sentence that would have been imposed upon you if you’d been convicted after trial.
But because you have pleaded guilty, and having regard to all the circumstances which have been referred to on your behalf, I discount that sentence from 9½ years to 6 years 4 months’ imprisonment. So that is a discount of 3 years and 2 months on the sentence to reflect the mitigation available to you.
The sentence, therefore, is one of 6 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.
Defendant's application for leave to appeal out of time refused by Court of Appeal. Please refer to CACC9/2011 dated 23 August 2011 |