COURT: The defendant, aged 28, pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking in dangerous drugs when he appeared in the Magistrates’ Court on 5 July this year.
The 1st charge related to some 106.71 grammes of powder containing 78.72 grammes of ketamine, and the 2nd charge was in relation to 444.45 grammes of powder containing 337.52 grammes of ketamine.
The two offences occurred on 3 February 2013. The defendant was intercepted in Tsuen Wan Market Street, and on being searched he was found to be in possession of three plastic bags in his jacket, and six more were found in a cover he was wearing on his forearm. All the bags contained the suspected drugs referred to in the 1st charge.
He told the police, who then arrested him, that it was “K Chai” for his own consumption.
Later - in fact, on the next day - he was taken to his residence in Mong Kok, where four more bags of suspected drugs were found. They are the drugs referred to in the 2nd charge. There was also paraphernalia, which included an electronic balance, at his address.
The street value of all the ketamine found in the defendant’s possession was estimated to be $67,792.
The combined weight of the ketamine in Charges 1 and 2 is 416.24 grammes. The reason that it is important that it is looked at in this way, as Mr Iu in his very capable address to me in mitigation was at pains to make out, is that that is the total quantity being trafficked on 3 February by the defendant, so that in overall terms, the sentence should reflect that amount and no more.
The guideline sentence for such an amount under the terms of Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew Cheng [2009] 1 HKLRD 1 is in the region of 10 years’ imprisonment after trial.
The defendant has pleaded guilty in good time, and he will receive full credit for so doing. This means, in practice, that he will receive a discount of one-third from the sentence that he would have received if the case had been contested and he had been found guilty.
What is perfectly apparent from this case is that whilst the defendant may well from time to time casually use some of the ketamine, this was, in reality, ketamine that he was being paid to deliver to others.
Would you stand, please. The sentence on the 1st charge is one of 4 years and 2 months’ imprisonment.
On the 2nd charge, the sentence is 6 years’ imprisonment.
I shall order that only 2 years and 6 months of the sentence on the 2nd charge will run consecutively to the sentence on Charge 1.
This makes a total therefore of 6 years and 8 months’ imprisonment, which means that the 10-year sentence you would have received after trial if you had been found guilty by a jury has been discounted by one-third.