COURT: Defendant, on 14 February 2022, you pleaded guilty before a magistrate to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs. In the same hearing you admitted the Summary of Facts. As a result of your plea of guilty, you have been committed here to the Court of First Instance for sentence. Through your plea of guilty you admitted that on 22 December 2020 at your home in Sau Yin House, Sau Mau Ping, you unlawfully trafficked in 1,249.40 grammes of a solid containing 1,082.68 grammes of ketamine.
On 22 December 2020, a team of police officers went to your home in Sau Yin House in relation to another case which was a criminal damage case. Upon arrival, they displayed the search warrant to your grandmother who let the officers in. At the material time, you were asleep on the upper bed of a bunk bed. Having verified your identity, they arrested you for the other criminal damage case.
The search warrant was executed and the drugs in the amount as stated in the charge were found in your bedroom. In summary, the drugs were contained in approximately 70-odd plastic bags and there were four electronic scales found and other paraphernalia such as a plastic bowl, cups, metal spoons, plastic spoons with traces of the drug ketamine on it.
When the drugs were found, you were arrested and cautioned for trafficking in dangerous drugs. You told the police officers you were keeping these drugs for another person. You also told the police there were more drugs at the rear of the bed and behind the bookshelf and that was when further drugs were found. However the total was, as stated in the charge, 1,249.40 grammes of a solid.
Mr Chan Siu-ming, your counsel, has mitigated on your behalf. At the material time, you were a Form 2 student. This offence was committed a month after you turned 16. You are now 17 years of age and at the time of commission of this offence you had a clear record.
Since the commission of the offence, however, you have been convicted of two charges of criminal damage and that was on 14 January 2021 to which you were sentenced to probation and ordered to pay compensation. I was informed by Mr Chan that the reason why the police went to your home on 22 December was because they were looking for you in relation to the criminal damage case to which you were convicted. In that case, it involved you throwing red paint over some premises. Nevertheless, I take into account that when you committed this offence you were of clear record.
You live with your grandmother and aunt. I am informed that they are here in court today, your two aunts as well as a school teacher and relatives. You have good family ties and they offer you good support.
Your parents are divorced and both live in the mainland. For that reason you have been living with your grandmother and aunt here in Hong Kong.
The reason for your committing this offence, I am informed that you had attended or went to what is called a Wi-Fi bar where you play games through their website and at the time of going to this bar you came to know, as Mr Chan states, some “bad guys”.
It was one guy called Aeroplane who asked you to store these drugs for him. This guy offered you $1,000 for storage of all the items. Mr Chan explains that because of a moment of greed, your young age and ignorance of the sinister background of this guy, you agreed to store these drugs for him in your house.
Mr Chan submits that there was no money found in the premises, therefore he says you were not involved in the actual trafficking but as you told the police immediately upon your arrest, they were stored by you and you were keeping them for another person. I accept that is so.
Mr Chan also urges this court to accept that you have shown your remorse from a very early stage because when the police found some drugs and arrested you, you immediately told them that there were more drugs at the rear of the bed and behind the bookshelf. I accept that is what you did as that is what is stated in the Admitted Facts.
Defendant, you are a young man of 17 years of age. However, youth itself is not a mitigating factor when it comes to this very serious charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs. As I think you know, many traffickers tend to use young people like yourself to traffic in drugs. For this reason these sentences are imposed on you despite youth so as to deter youngsters like you from committing these offences. Therefore even though you are young, it does not mean that you will receive a more lenient sentence.
The amount of drugs that you were trafficking in was a very large amount, it was 1,082.68 grammes of ketamine. The guideline case for trafficking in the drug ketamine is laid down in Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew Cheng. The Court of Appeal has laid down guidelines for the trafficking in specific amounts of drugs. The amount of drugs that you were trafficking in falls in the category of over 1,000 grammes which warrants a starting point after trial of 14 years and upwards.
Given the quantity that you were trafficking in, defendant, I take a starting point, had you been convicted after trial of 14 years’ imprisonment. There are no aggravating factors in this case. Save for your early plea of guilty at the first opportunity, there are no other mitigating factors.
Given your early plea of guilty, I reduce that term by one-third. You shall be sentenced to a term of 9 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.