HKSAR v. JARDIN RODELA MANINGAS

HCCC385/2010

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 385 OF 2010

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

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

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

Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

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

COURT: Miss Jardin, you have been convicted, after trial, of trafficking in heroin, by way of importation. You fell to the temptation of easy money and took a risk, which I have no doubt you will now be very much regretting. The quantity you brought in was a sizeable amount and on the street was worth just under $850,000. Plainly, you were someone who was trusted by the gang behind you that sent you here.

The sentencing tariffs, as your counsel has already advised you, are very clear in Hong Kong and I hardly need to tell you if you had gone to Malaysia or Singapore they would have been even more severe. Sentence in Hong Kong is decided by reference to the narcotic content in the mixture. Here there were just over 571 grammes of heroin hydrochloride in a mixture weighing just over a kilo.

In the leading sentencing guideline case which your counsel referred to of R v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR 370, the band into which this case falls is 400 to 600 grammes of heroin, for which a sentence of 15 to 20 years is regarded as appropriate. For this quantity, in my view, a sentence of 19½ years is appropriate before enhancement for the aggravating feature, in this case, of importation from overseas. This aspect has long been regarded in Hong Kong as a feature which deserves heavier punishment than local trafficking offences which have no international element, for which see HKSAR v Abdallah Anwar Abbas [2009] 2 HKC 197.

There is no real mitigation in this case. Indeed it is true you tried to assist the Customs but it came to nothing. The sentence will be one of 20 years’ imprisonment.