HKSAR v. CHUI CHUNG-LAI

HCCC 132/2019

[2020] HKCFI 290

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 132 OF 2019

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

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COURT:

The defendant had pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 964 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 946 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.

The defendant was intercepted in Lok Ma Chau Customs Arrival Hall and inside his bag was found the dangerous drug. In a video-recorded interview in the presence of his mother, as he is only 16 years old, he gave an account about going to the mainland on that day in the evening at about 8 pm to look for a person to pick up some stuff, he said. The voice messages on his phone confirmed that someone was indeed teaching him how to avoid Customs detection.

His travel movement record shows that he left Hong Kong in Lok Ma Chau at 8.51 pm and came back via Lok Ma Chau at 11.51 pm, so clearly, he was used as a courier to take the drugs across the border from China to Hong Kong.

The estimated retail value of the drugs was about HK$530,200.

The defendant was aged 16 at the time of the offence and is now 17. He had studied up to Form 3 and was neither working nor studying at the time of his arrest. Mr Lai had said everything he could possibly say on behalf of the defendant. According to the various letters submitted, the defendant has a good personality. He appears to be a caring young man to his family and volunteered at one time at the Boys and Girls Clubs Association where he taught basketball, but unfortunately, at his young age having left school, he did not pursue a course in perfecting a skill in which he was interested in rather than idling every day. That is why he, I am sure, then ended up with these peers who put him onto this job of bringing drugs across the border.

As Mr Lai pointed out, the main mitigation in this case is the fact that he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity which is a sign of his remorse. Unfortunately, the age, although the defendant is young, I cannot consider it as a mitigating factor because these drug traffickers are beginning to use younger and younger people to carry drugs for them across the border for money which is very tempting to young people. The courts have to make sure that everybody in Hong Kong, including parents and children, understand that even though you are 16 and you are caught trafficking in dangerous drugs, the court will not consider the fact of his age as a mitigating factor.

As Mr Lau correctly pointed out, the guidelines have been set down as to the starting point for sentence in the case of Abdallah [2009] 2 HKC 197, and it says that for trafficking in between 600 grammes to 1,200 grammes the range of sentence should be 20 to 23 years. For this amount of drugs, it would be starting point sentence in the range of about 21 to 21½ years. I do take into account, as Mr Lai pointed out, his young age, so I will take the lower starting point which is one of 21 years.

Unfortunately, the sentence has to be enhanced because it was a cross-border delivery trafficking in drugs, so I will add 1-year enhancement to the 21 years, thus making a 22-year starting point. I give you the full one-third discount because of his guilty plea and his remorse and so the defendant will go to prison for 14 years and 8 months.

So you will go to prison for 14 years, 8 months, and defendant, I hope you will spend the time in bettering yourself, study for something, learn a skill so that when you come out as a young man you will be able to earn a living and take care of your family. It is clear your family loves you from the letters that I have read and I think you owe them that much so that when you come out you can actually take care of them. It does not matter if you have been to prison. If you manage to learn a skill and perfect it and you can also succeed in that skill that you are interested in, all right?

So I hope that you will turn over a new leaf.