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DCCC1001/2011
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1001 OF 2011
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HKSAR |
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v. |
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Ma Siu-wing |
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| Date: |
26 October 2011 at 10.22 am |
| Present: |
Ms Monica Chan, PP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr Tang Yiu-wing, of Ivan Tang & Co., for the Defendant |
| Offence: |
(1) Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物)
(2) Possession of a dangerous drug (管有危險藥物) |
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Reasons for Sentence
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1. The defendant has pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine. The quantity of cocaine was just in excess of 10 grammes.
2. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of being in possession of 0.34 grammes of cocaine, the quantity that was found at the premises where he lives.
3. The facts admitted by the defendant disclose that on the evening of 19 July, police officers were keeping observation on a motor vehicle parked on the first floor of the car park of the Tsuen Wan Centre. The officers were in possession of a search warrant.
4. When they saw the defendant approach the vehicle (he had a key to the vehicle), the officers intercepted the defendant and executed the warrant.
5. A black sock was found behind the ashtray inside the rest pad located between the driver’s seat and the front passenger seat. That sock was found to contain the drugs the subject of the 1st charge.
6. The defendant was arrested and, under caution, admitted that the cocaine was partly for sale and partly for his own consumption.
7. The defendant, at the time of his arrest, was in possession of $1,120 and two mobile phones.
8. The street value of the drugs is just in excess of HK$14,000.
9. After his arrest, the defendant was taken to premises Flat A on the 3rd floor of Chungking House in Tsuen Wan Centre, where he lives together with his girlfriend.
10. Drugs were found in those premises and they are the drugs the subject of the 2nd charge. They were found on a tea table inside the living room. He said that those drugs were for his own consumption. The value of those drugs is $372.
11. When interviewed under caution by the police at the police station, the defendant told the police he placed the drugs inside the vehicle at around 5 am on 18 July so it would be more convenient for him to deliver them the following day. He intended to take them to pubs to see if he could sell them to others. The two packets out of the batch of drugs at his home were for his own consumption.
12. The defendant has four previous court appearances: two of those were for copyright offences, one was for assault and the last conviction was in 2003 for possession of dangerous drugs. He was sentenced to 4 months’ imprisonment. I am told that the drugs in that case was ketamine.
13. The defendant is 33 years of age. He was born in Hong Kong and educated to Form 4 standard. He was brought up by his parents and youngest sister and grandmother in Tai Wo Hau Estate.
14. His mother was born in Thailand and I am told that she was sold to Hong Kong when she was still a child and she has received no formal education. I am told that his father used to be a clerk in the Housing Department whilst his mother worked as a fruit hawker, and the financial situation of the family at that time was stable.
15. Unfortunately, not long after the defendant started primary school education, his father became an alcoholic and the family situation deteriorated rapidly. His father started to assault the defendant and other members of the family, including the grandmother. The family lived in fear and the father also committed offences outside the home which caused considerable disturbance in the neighbourhood, and the defendant and his family were ostracised because of the father’s behaviour.
16. Eventually his mother was re-housed and he lived with his mother for some time, later with his father, but after being sentenced to imprisonment, he returned to find that his father had disappeared again.
17. I am told that in 2002 the family was eventually given a public housing unit in Tsing Yi. The mother is an enthusiastic volunteer in the district, rending assistance to district councillors.
18. In 2002, his mother lost her ability to work because of injuries, and she had to stay home. The defendant supported his mother, but two months before the offence was committed, the bar in which he was working closed for business and he then started to take cocaine, and it was in those circumstances that he committed the offences.
19. I have had placed before me a number of letters: three from district councillors, some from family members and one from a pastor. All the letters are very supportive of the defendant and ask the court to deal with him in a lenient fashion.
20. The defendant has a previous conviction for a drug-related offence, albeit that was some eight years ago. However, he must be well aware of the serious consequences that face those who traffic in dangerous drugs, and particularly, in a drug like cocaine.
21. Drugs are a curse on the society and people know that those caught trafficking in drugs will be dealt with severely by the courts.
22. The quantity in the first offence puts the sentencing range in the 5 to 8 years’ imprisonment bracket. The quantity involved is just over 10 grammes, so that would put it at the lower end of that scale, namely, one of 5 years’ imprisonment.
23. Having heard what has been said in mitigation, and I accept that part of those drugs were for his own consumption, I propose to reduce that starting point to one of 4½ years’ imprisonment.
24. The defendant is entitled for that to be reduced because of his guilty plea, so the sentence on Charge 1 will be 3 years’ imprisonment.
25. On Charge 2, I sentence the defendant to 6 months’ imprisonment, and order that to run concurrently.
26. The defendant will, therefore, go to prison for 3 years.
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