HKSAR v. HUI KIT PING

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

1997, No.395
(Criminal)

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J U D G M E N T

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Stuart-Moore, J.A. (giving the judgment of the Court):

1. On 24th June 1997, this Applicant pleaded guilty before Deputy Judge Wesley Wong in the High Court to a single count of trafficking in a mixture containing 23 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride known as "ice".

2. The Applicant was caught with the drugs on 20th August 1996. He had told the police that they were for his own consumption. He said that he had been an addict for a year and had used $300 worth per day. Nevertheless, the Applicant pleaded guilty to the offence on first being arraigned in the High Court.

3. The Applicant had entered grounds of appeal expressing dissatisfaction with the sentence imposed upon him, of five years and four months' imprisonment where the judge had taken a starting point of eight years' imprisonment. The Applicant feels that this was too severe and that the judge took an inappropriate starting point and failed, in the light of mitigation placed before the court, to give sufficient weight to what had been said on his behalf. He also states that another offender in similar circumstances to his own received a lighter sentence from the same judge. The latter point is not something we know a great deal about. Mr. Wong, for the Respondent, is unable to tell us anything about that other case. If another offender was treated more leniently, that offender was given a sentence that may not have been appropriate to the case. We are concerned with this Applicant and whether the sentence imposed upon him was correct.

4. There was in this Applicant's case really no real mitigation beyond the guilty plea itself. The starting point was not inappropriate and it was reduced by the full one-third. The sentence was within the guideline tariffs laid down in The Attorney-General v. Ching Kwok-hung (1991) 2 HKLR 125, and we shall not interfere with the sentence.

5. Accordingly, this application is dismissed.