HKSAR v. LI CHEUK KUEN

HCCC 145/2015

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 145 OF 2015

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

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COURT: 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. You have admitted that on 13 July 2014 at Wong Chuk Street, Shum Shui Po, Kowloon, you unlawfully trafficked in 232.17 grammes of a powder containing 156.71 grammes of ketamine and 1.47 grammes of a solid containing 1.33 grammes of cocaine.

Shortly after 1.30 am in the early hours of 13 July 2014, a party of police approached a vehicle parked on Wong Chuk Street. That vehicle was a private car, registration number NG5728. At that time there were three males on board the vehicle. You were seated in the front passenger’s seat, whilst the two other males were seated in the driver’s seat and at the rear passenger’s seat respectively. All of you were asked or requested to alight from the vehicle. The police conducted a search of both the vehicle and the three males. From the search of the vehicle, the police found $3,800 in cash from the storage area next to the front passenger’s seat, and another $1,000 in cash in the vehicle. The money was seized.

The officers also found hidden inside a concealed compartment of both the driver’s side window switch and the front passenger’s window switch a quantity of plastic bags containing the drugs. There were 41 plastic bags seized in total, of which 31 contained the drug ketamine, and 10 contained the drug cocaine. The type and quantity of the drugs is that as I set out in the charge.

The estimated street value of the drugs at that time was $30,759.

In a video-recorded interview you told the police that you had purchased these drugs from a friend at the cost of $15,000, that is sometime between the time you got the car the day before at 5 pm and the time you were arrested. You admitted to hiding the drugs inside the window switches of the compartment.

Defendant, you are 22 years of age. At the time of commission of this offence you were 21. You have four previous convictions, two are related to dangerous drugs, one of those is possession of dangerous drugs to which you were sentenced to Detention Centre in 2011, and the other is similar to this charge that is of trafficking in dangerous drugs to which you were sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment on 4 August 2014.

You are single. At the time of this offence, I am told that contrary to what is stated in the antecedents statements, you were an attendant at a noddle chain shop in Hong Kong.

I have today received a letter written by you in Chinese. It has been translated by your counsel, Mr Wong, and in that letter I am able to see that you are remorseful for your acts and have found it very hard since you have been in custody for over a year. You stated frankly that the reason why you committed this offence was because you wanted to get quick money and were prompted by others.

Your counsel, Mr Wong Po-wing, has gone through in detail the relevant cases in respect of guidelines in sentencing for trafficking in these two types of drugs. Despite your young age, this is not a mitigating factor. What is the strongest mitigating factor in this case is your plea of guilty.

I turn now to deal with the sentence in respect of this charge.

Defendant, you admitted to trafficking in two types of drugs, that is the drug ketamine and cocaine. I take the combined approach in sentencing you, and I adopt the approach of the conversion rate whereby I will take a single tariff for the one type of drug, and that is ketamine. That is to be applied to the entire quantity seized.

There was no evidence in this case that the two drugs were mixed into a cocktail to enhance their potency.

The tariffs of the drug ketamine are said out in a case of Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew Cheng. In that case it was held that the sentence for trafficking between 50 to 300 grammes is 6 to 9 years’ imprisonment after trial. In the present case, there is 156.71 grammes of ketamine. After trial, that would attract a sentence of 7 years and 3 months’ imprisonment.

As far as cocaine is concerned, the tariffs for cocaine is set out in a case of Lau Tak Ming. In Lau Tak Ming, up to 10 grammes of narcotic would attract a sentence of between 2 to 5 years’ imprisonment. In the present case there is 1.33 grammes of cocaine and that would attract a sentence of 2 years and 3 months’ imprisonment. However, in converting that amount to that of ketamine, that would be equivalent to 2 grammes of ketamine. So in adding those quantities together, that is 156.71 plus 2 grammes of ketamine equals 158.71 grammes of ketamine.

Had you been convicted after trial for that amount of ketamine, I would have taken a starting point of 7 years and 3 months’ imprisonment.

Defendant, as can be seen from your record, you were sentenced for an offence of trafficking in August 2014. I am informed by your counsel, Mr Wong, that that trafficking offence was committed in 2013. You were therefore on bail for that trafficking offence when you committed this present offence of trafficking. I consider that to be an aggravating factor. In those circumstances, I enhance your sentence by a further 3 months’ imprisonment.

In the circumstances, the sentencing point is one of 7 years and 6 months’ imprisonment. Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty, that is the usual one-third discount, you shall be sentenced then to 5 years’ imprisonment.