COURT: Defendant, stand up, please.
Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a single offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs, that offence relates to powder with 833.51 grammes of ketamine contained therein.
The facts are very simple, and they are as follows. At about 4.01 pm, on 9 June of 2014, customs officers saw you come out of Lai Ho House, Lai Kok Estate, Sham Shui Po. When they approached you, you fled. However, you were soon intercepted.
A search revealed from your left pocket of your shorts, three large plastic bags containing 65 smaller plastic bags of suspected ketamine. Under caution, you admitted knowing the large bags contained “K Chai”, which intended to deliver for someone.
You admitted to living in a flat in Lai Ho House. And there, openly displayed on the table were electronic scales with a battery, suspected ketamine, and nine plastic bags, and a large quantity of unused resealable plastic bags.
You repeated your admission under further caution.
The total dangerous drugs found on you and at your home was 1001.81 grammes of powder containing 833.51 grammes of ketamine. The estimated street value of those drugs is $118,213.
You admit to one previous similar conviction, for that you were sentenced to Detention Centre. I am told that you largely agree with your antecedent statement, supplementing with the fact that in the year 2000, you came to Hong Kong from the mainland.
You are 27 years of age, educated to Form 1, and you were unemployed at the time of the offence. You are single. You admitted to being a drug abuser.
Further mitigation was entered on your behalf by Mr Ho.
He said, of course, the main point of mitigation here is your plea of guilty. He has told me that your mother is 53 years of age and working. However, unfortunately, your father suffered a stroke in 2014, and was in Princess Margaret Hospital, but now he is in an old people’s home.
When you were in employment, you would give your mother $4,000 to $5,000 per month. You committed the offence because you were unemployed, and you were tempted by a friend with easy money. You were offered $300 per delivery.
Mr Ho acknowledges the starting point for this quantity of ketamine is between 12 and 14 years, but urges me to take a lower starting point. He points to the fact that the one previous conviction is now a spent conviction. He also produced to me a certificate issued by a pastor, showing that you had completed a bible course.
I turn now to the sentence.
This is a very serious offence. There is little, in my opinion, by way of mitigation save for your plea of guilty. Despite the fact that you only have one previous conviction, and it is spent, it is for the same offence. I do note, however, at the scene of the interception, you were co-operative with the police to the extent that you admitted knowledge of the drugs. However, I can see no reason to depart from the guidelines.
I take a starting point of 13 years’ imprisonment, reduced to 8 years and 8 months for your plea of guilty.