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DCCC288/2010
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONGSPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 288 OF 2010
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Date:
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26 April 2010 at 10.49 am
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Present:
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Mr Henry Hung, PP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr Damy Lou, of Messrs Edward Lau, Wong & Lou, assigned by the Director of Legal Aid, for the Defendant
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Offence:
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Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物)
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Reasons for Sentence
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1. The defendant pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
2. The particulars of the offence are that on 8 January 2010, at the lift lobby on the 21st Floor of Shin Kwan House in Fu Shin House in Tai Po, he unlawfully trafficked in 8.45 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
3. Shortly after 9.30 on the evening of 8 January 2010, police officers saw the defendant leaving Room 2115 of Shin Kwan House. When he was outside the flat, he was seen squatting down, trying to hide something. He was intercepted by the police officers and on searching his body the drugs the subject of the charge were found.
4. There were 6 packets, each containing 19 packets of drugs, and 5 packets containing 20 packets. There were 119 small packets in total. He claimed that they were for his own consumption and that he was not delivering them to other people.
5. He said he bought them in bulk from a person called “Ah Kuen” because it was cheap, but he did not have Ah Kuen’s contact details. He said that he had the drugs with him because whenever he went out, he brought the dangerous drugs with him for fear that his mother might find them inside his residence.
6. The defendant now admits that he was in possession of the drugs for trafficking although some of them were for his own consumption.
7. The defendant has four previous court appearances. The last court appearance was 2005 for possession of dangerous drugs when he was fined $1,500. His first conviction in 1996 was for three offences of robbery when he was 15 years of age at that time and he was ordered to go to the drug addiction treatment centre. In 1997 he was convicted of theft and again sent to the drug addiction treatment centre.
8. In mitigation I am told that the defendant is 29 years of age, he was educated to Form 2 standard and has worked as a transportation worker. I am told that for 11 years, he worked for the same employer but he left that employment after a dispute and now works for Watson’s Water. He worked for them as a delivery worker earning some $10,000 per month.
9. The defence counsel referred to the fact that the defendant was first convicted when he was 15 and sent to the drug addiction treatment centre and described him as a deep-rooted drug addict. He pointed out in mitigation that the defendant has been out of trouble for 5 years. There is some family support. He has a brother who supported him and came to court for this hearing.
10. As counsel has rightly said, the appropriate sentence for trafficking in up to 10 grammes is from 2 to 5 years. The sentence follows the quantity of drugs. That would put the quantity in the defendant’s possession at the higher end of that spectrum, being 8.45 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
11. I have taken into account that the defendant is a drug abuser and that some of those drugs would have been for his own consumption. There was no direct evidence of sale of any drugs.
12. Looking at those features of the case, I have decided that the appropriate starting point for this offence is one of 4 years’ imprisonment. The defendant has pleaded guilty and he is entitled to the sentence to be reduced by one-third. The defendant will therefore go to prison for a period of 32 months.
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