CRIMINAL CASE NO. 333 OF 2011
COURT: You each stand convicted, on your own plea of guilty,of trafficking in dangerous drugs under Count 2. Those drugs consisted of 634.05
grammes of a solid containing 455.16 grammes of cocaine and 400 tablets containing 40.88 grammes of ketamine and 0.61 grammes of methamphetamine.
I have considered everything urged on behalf of each of you.
The 1st accused, you also stand convicted, again on your own guilty plea, of simple possession of dangerous drugs under Count 1. This quantity of drugs is much smaller, and of course the offence is only of simple possession rather than trafficking. For this offence of simple possession under Count 1, I adopt a starting point of 12 months and reduce it by a third for your guilty plea.
So the sentence which I pass upon you for this simple possession count is 8 months. This sentence will be wholly concurrent with the sentence which I am about to pass upon you on trafficking.
Turning to the trafficking count, the drugs involved are of different types under this count and I approach sentencing in the manner indicated by the Court of Appeal in the case of Wong Kin Kau decided on 4 May 2010. Following that approach and having regard to the circumstances of the present case, I adopt a starting point of 17 years for each of you.
1st accused, the only real mitigation available to you is your guilty plea which was tendered after you have given evidence in your voir dire and before I have given my ruling. Your counsel has suggested that even though your plea of guilty was not entered at the very beginning of the trial, I should still give you 30 per cent discount for your guilty plea.
I accept that. In fact, I will round it off in your favour and sentence you to 11 years and 10 months under Count 2 – which is as I have said, rounding it off in your favour.
So 1st accused, I sentence you to 8 months’ imprisonment under Count 1 and 11 years and 10 months under Count 2. I order that the two sentences to run concurrently with each other. Therefore, you will go to prison for a total of 11 years and 10 months.
2nd accused, as I have already indicated, adopting the approach in the case of Wong Kin Kau, I adopt a starting point of 17 years also in your case. However, you have some additional mitigation in the form of your offer to give evidence for the prosecution, which proved unnecessary upon the 1st accused changing his plea to guilty. For that additional mitigation, I give you such further discount as reduces your sentence to one of 10 years’ imprisonment.
2nd accused, I sentence you to 10 years’ imprisonment under Count 2. You will therefore go to prison for 10 years.