COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 257.57 grammes of a solid containing 185.56 grammes of ketamine and 10 grammes of a solid containing 7.76 grammes of cocaine. He has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity in the Magistrates’ Court and has been committed to this court for sentence.
He is aged 24 now and has a clear record. There is no doubt that young men like the defendant are often used as pawns by the evil drug traffickers to traffic for them the dangerous drugs. The background of the defendant has been clearly set out by Ms Wu on his behalf in her written mitigation. The defendant lives with his mother and after his father passed away in 2012. He has an elder stepbrother who lives separately.
He completed Secondary 6 education and was pursuing a vocational training. At that time, he was a student, a full-time student undertaking a certificate programme in hotel management at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education. As his mother is a housewife, he and his mother relied on CSSA. Because of this, the defendant then took on a part-time job at a convenience store after school, and he undertook this extra work from 2019 to 2021.
However, because of the pandemic and the economic slowdown, he lost his job and, according to Ms Wu, the defendant needed to pay his tuition fee and the rent for the month, and so he then turned to drug trafficking at the instigation of his former schoolmate in order to earn quick money. So he then became, as Ms Wu put it, a courier or storekeeper for this drug-trafficking syndicate.
But I am encouraged by what Ms Wu has said. It is that the defendant has, because of the support of his family, that is his mother and stepbrother, he has decided to learn a trade in prison so that when he is released, he can then become a useful member of society. He has so far obtained two certificates, one for software application and one for the construction industry safety training.
It is a sad fact, as I said, that the drug traffickers make use of young men who then get themselves into trouble and then get a conviction record for the rest of their lives. For whatever reward is given, it is not worth the blight you put on your future.
The facts clearly show that the defendant had the drugs, which is the subject matter of the charge, inside his room together with a large number of small resealable plastic bags and a digital scale box which is empty.
The defendant was arrested, and under caution, he admitted that he was trafficking because -- for quick money. And the drugs which were seized had an estimated -- for the ketamine had an estimated street value of $122,088. And as for the cocaine, it has a street value of somewhere in the region of just over $9,000.
And as Ms Wu very correctly pointed out, the sentencing guidelines have been laid down for these amount of drugs, and according to the various tests, I agree with Ms Wu that the conversion test should be used, that is, converting the total amount of drug into ketamine. And therefore, for converting the cocaine into ketamine, 7.76 grammes of cocaine would attract about 4 years, and it is similar to that for trafficking in 16.56 grammes of ketamine. And adding that to the actual amount of ketamine found at the flat, the total amount would be just over 200 grammes. And therefore, the approximate sentence, a starting-point sentence would be in the region of 7 years and 10 months.
And of course, as I have said at the beginning, the defendant has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and he is entitled to one-third discount. And working it out mathematically, it would have given him a sentence of just over 5 years.
But I am going to sentence the defendant to 5 years’ imprisonment because of the background I have said, it appears that the defendant has done quite well for himself academically, and he has a clear record, and I am impressed by his work so far in custody, gaining the certificate. So I will sentence him to 5 years’ imprisonment. So with the continued support of his family, hopefully, the defendant will be able to become a constructive member of society.