HKSAR v. WONG YIU MAN

HCCC 426/2014

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 426 OF 2014

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REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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1.  The defendant pleaded guilty to trafficking in a dangerous drug in the Magistrate’s Court and on 26 September 2014 was committed to the Court of First Instance for sentence. The defendant’s case came before me on 2 December 2014 for sentence. On that occasion, he terminated the services of his legal representatives and I was informed that he wished to instruct new legal representatives as he was considering reversing his plea of guilty. I adjourned the case to 23 January 2015 and through his new counsel, Mr Bruce C.H. Tse, I was informed that he maintained his plea of guilty. Upon a re-reading of the charge and the admitted facts, the defendant confirmed his plea of guilty and his agreement with the admitted facts.

2.  I was informed today that the defendant made a statement to the authorities but after an assessment of its contents it was found to be of no value. 

3.  I will now proceed with the sentence of the defendant.  The particulars of the offence are that the defendant, on 21 February 2014, at the lift lobby of the 18^th floor of the Hing Yiu House at the Tai Hing Estate, Tuen Mun, unlawfully trafficked in a dangerous drug, namely 27.91 g of a crystalline solid containing 26.67 g of ICE.

4.  The facts of the case are fairly straightforward.  At about 12:48 am on 21 February 2014, police officers noticed the defendant wandering around suspiciously in the lift lobby of the 18^th floor of Hing Yiu House.  He was stopped for inquiry.  The police officers searched him and found an object underneath his trousers near his back passage.  He was asked what the object was and he answered that it was drugs.  He then took from his trousers a transparent plastic bag containing suspected drugs and told the police officers that it was ICE.  He was arrested and after being cautioned he said that he needed money and was going to sell the ICE to make some.

5.  In a subsequent video recorded interview, the defendant elaborated that he obtained the bag of ICE from a person named “Ah Ho” about half an hour before he was intercepted by the police officers.  He said that he inserted the bag of ICE into his back passage in a public toilet and then went to the location where he was intercepted to deliver the bag of ICE to another person.  He confirmed with the police officers that he was himself a drug addict.

6.  The retail street value of the drugs at the time of the offence was about $12,476.

7.  The defendant is now 40 years old.  He was born in Hong Kong and only attained lower secondary education.  He was unemployed at the time of the offence and since he left school he has had no steady employment and little source of income.  In mitigation Mr Tse informed me that the defendant had previously worked as a kitchen hand and closer to the date of the offence as a transportation worker earning on a casual basis $500 per day.  He had difficulty making money but given his criminal record and his addiction to drugs, that may explain why he has not been able to maintain any steady employment.  He was married in 2008 and divorced in 2012 and has no children.  His parents and three younger brothers live in Hong Kong but he lived alone at the time of the offence.  He has been regularly in trouble with the law and since the age of about 16 years he has accumulated a long list of prior convictions for a variety of criminal activities mainly to do with possessing and trafficking drugs.  In 1996 and 1997 respectively, he was ordered to attend a Drug Addiction Treatment Centre.  This has had clearly no effect on him, as he continued to be convicted for drug offences, receiving a range of terms of imprisonment with the greatest sentence being for four years’ imprisonment in 2004 for trafficking in drugs.  His last conviction was in 2011 for possession of drugs for which he received a probation order of 18 months. It is clearly apparent that ever since he left school he has lived a life of crime, mainly dealing in drugs, where the criminal conduct has increasingly become more serious with greater penalties being imposed upon him as a result. It was submitted by Mr Tse that the defendant was to receive a reward of $500 for delivering the ICE. 

8.  I am prepared to accept that he has a serious drug addiction problem and that some of the drugs were for self consumption.  However, on his own admission, he was in need of money and when he was apprehended he was in the process of delivering the drugs to someone for reward.  There is no meaningful mitigation that can be advanced on his behalf to justify a reduction of sentence other than his pleaded guilty for which he is entitled to a third discount.

9.  According to the relevant tariff cases, a quantity of 26.67 g of ICE warrants a starting point of 7 years and 10 months’ imprisonment but with some of the drugs likely to be used for self consumption, I will reduce the starting point to 7 years and 3 months’ imprisonment which I reduce by one third for the defendants pleaded guilty, thus making a sentence 4 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.