HKSAR v. SIU YI SING

DCCC 1124/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 1124 OF 2013

----------------------

----------------------

---------------------

Reasons for Sentence

---------------------

1.  The defendant has pleaded guilty to trafficking in a total of 8.88 grammes of a solid containing 7.19 grammes of cocaine. He has agreed the facts and been convicted accordingly.

2.  Those facts show that on 2 October last year, 2013, the defendant was arrested by police in the early hours of the morning in Shek Lei Estate, Kwai Chung.  Following his arrest, he was searched and a tissue bag was found in his left front pocket of jeans and that bag contained a further 36 plastic packets in which the drug, the subject of the charge, was found.  Following a caution, the defendant admitted the drugs were for his self‑consumption and for sale to others. 

3.  The defendant later took part in a video-recorded interview where he expanded upon that earlier admission.  He said he had bought the cocaine on 1 October from a person called Ah Keung for some $5,000 and he would sell part of the drug to recover the costs.  He would sell it to young people in Shek Lei Estate in quantities of between 0.25 and 0.26 grammes for a price of $300.  He had been consuming the drug since March of 2013 and would consume on the basis of about 0.25 and 0.26 grammes of cocaine every two to three days.  The street value of the drugs is $11,508. 

4.  The defendant agreed his antecedents. They show that he is 17 years old, so he is a young man, that he is educated to Secondary 1 level, that he was working as a warehouse attendant and was earning about $8,000 a month.  He has two unrelated previous convictions for which he had been placed on probation and subsequently for breach of the Probation Order sent to a Reformatory School and he had been released from Reformatory School in March of 2013 which he when he appears, on his own admission, to have started consuming cocaine.

5.  In mitigation, it was said the defendant lived with his grandmother and uncle.  His father was distant and his mother had passed away when he was very young.  He contributed to the support of the family unit from the wage that he earned at the warehouse.  He had been consuming drugs for a short period since March of 2013.  He acknowledged it as a serious offence, especially to sell drugs to other young people.  He asked the court to discount the sentence having regard to the fact that part of the drugs would be for his own self-consumption.  The part being sold according to his statement would be that to repay the cost of the drugs, the $5,000. 

6.  The sentencing tariff in respect of offences of trafficking in cocaine is derived from the cases of Lau Tak Wing and HKSAR v Abdullah.  The quantity of drugs in this case is 7.19 grammes of cocaine and falls within a range for sentencing of up to 10 grammes which is between 2 to 5 years’ imprisonment.  It is accepted that part of the drugs is for the defendant’s self-consumption and accordingly it would be appropriate to discount this figure having regard to that factor and discounts for sentencing in that respect should fall somewhere between 10 to 25 per cent off the basic starting point.

7.  The defendant is still very young, he is only 17 years of age.  However, having regard to the seriousness of the offence charged, the only appropriate sentence, despite the defendant’s youth, is one of imprisonment.  I consider that the appropriate starting point for sentence for this quantity of drug, having regard to the tariff and the defendant’s age, an appropriate starting point is one of 40 months’ imprisonment.

8.  I consider that the defendant is entitled to a discount from this figure to reflect the fact that part of the drug is for his own consumption.  I will discount the starting point by a figure slightly in excess of 15 per cent to reflect this and that will be a total of 7 months’ imprisonment, this gives a figure of 33 months’ imprisonment.

9.  From this figure, the defendant is entitled to a discount for his plea of guilty.  This is the normal figure of one-third discount.  Once that discount is taken from the original figure, the final figure for sentencing is one of 22 months’ imprisonment and that is the sentence that I impose, one of 22 months’ imprisonment.