CRIMINAL CASE NO. 194 OF 2010
COURT: On 18 June 2010, the defendant pleaded guilty at Eastern Magistrates’ Court to charges of possession of and trafficking in dangerous drugs, and he was then committed to this court for sentence.
The drugs were found at the defendant’s home which he shared with other members of his family.
Police went to his address in Tai Po on 6 March 2010, where they found, in the defendant’s mother’s bedroom, 14 tablets which contained, on later analysis, 0.81 of a gramme of 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (“MDA”), better known as Ecstasy tablets. These tablets have a slightly different chemical structure to MDMA, but the Government Chemist has confirmed that MDA is very similar in nature. Both compounds form the drug commonly known as Ecstasy.
The search of the flat then revealed, in the defendant’s own bedroom, 20 plastic bags of powder containing 328.36 grammes of ketamine, the 2nd charge. Found with these bags were a number of empty plastic bags and an electronic scale.
The street value of the ketamine was estimated to be $44,415.
The defendant immediately accepted responsibility for all the drugs in the flat.
The defendant is 19 years old and has a clear record, but has admitted that he is a drug addict.
The sentencing band for between 300 and 600 grammes of ketamine under the guideline case in Secretary for Justice and Another v Hii Siew Cheng and Another [2008] 3 HKC 323 at 349 is 9 to 12 years’ imprisonment.
I propose to take a starting point of 9 years' imprisonment on the 2nd charge, which will be reduced by a third to reflect the defendant's timely plea of guilty.
The sentence on this charge is therefore 6 years' imprisonment.
On the 1st charge, bearing in mind the latent risk factor in a trafficker such as this defendant for the redistribution of drugs intended for his own consumption, I shall take a 6 month starting point and reduce this for the plea of guilty to 4 months' imprisonment. This will run concurrently to the sentence on the 2nd charge.
So that is a sentence of 4 months' imprisonment which will run concurrently, and so your total sentence remains at 6 years' imprisonment.