HKSAR v. YEUNG WAI LOK

DCCC 1002/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 1002 OF 2012

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Yeung Wai-lok, you have pleaded guilty to Charge 3 on the charge sheet before the court, namely a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs on 12 July last year. I have ordered that Charges 1 and 2 remain on the court file not to be proceeded with without leave of the court.

2.  The charge to which you have pleaded guilty arises from a raid conducted by the police at the shop in Wo Yi Hop Road, Kwai Chung, where you worked and your family carries on an air-conditioning business.  You had just come out from the shop when the police approached you.

3.  During a search of the shop they found a box on a bookshelf which contained 10 packets which contained the ketamine referred to in the 3rd charge, namely 130 grammes of a powder containing 110 grammes of ketamine.  In the same box was the sum of $2,000.  On an adjacent desk was a scale and a pile of empty resealable plastic bags.  These drugs had a street value at the time of over HK$15,000. 

4.  You admitted that the drugs were yours and that you intended to sell them to other people.  When you were interviewed you said that you had bought 12 packets of ketamine from a friend earlier that day and that the friend had also given you the scale and the resealable plastic bags.

5.  This is not the first time you have been before the courts for the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs.  On 23 March 2009 you were sentenced to 3 years 4 months’ imprisonment for the same offence.  I have been told that the drugs involved in that case were also ketamine.  You would therefore have been in no doubt whatsoever that very severe consequences would follow if you were again to traffic in ketamine, yet you went ahead and did so.

6.  I have listened to what Mr Hung has told me about what you say is the reason you committed this offence, namely that your father had sought a loan from you to pay for some funeral expenses.  You would have known that that provided no justification whatsoever for committing an offence as serious as this. 

7.  I share the view suggested to me by your solicitor, Mr Hung, that the appropriate starting point in this case is 7 years’ imprisonment.  You have pleaded guilty and are entitled to the usual discount of one-third.  I therefore sentence you to 4 years 8 months’ imprisonment, that is 56 months’ imprisonment.