HKSAR v. IP YEE YIM

 DCCC2/2010

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 2 OF 2010

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, you pleaded guilty to a single offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to sections 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap.134. You admitted the Brief Facts and I convicted you.

2.  Those facts were as follows. At 8.45 pm on 5 November last police laid ambush at Ngau Tau Kok Road. At approximately 10.30 pm you were seen acting furtively. You were intercepted and searched.

3.  In your right front jeans pocket a resealable plastic bag containing suspected dangerous drugs was found. Subsequent analysis revealed this to be 27.22 grammes of a powder containing 21.96 grammes of ketamine.

4.  Under arrest and caution, you admitted that it did not belong to you; you were helping to deliver it.

5.  In a video-recorded interview you admitted that someone called Ah Lung had asked you to deliver the ketamine to a male inside a video arcade centre for $200.

6.  You admitted to one conviction which was actually a subsequent conviction but for a wholly different matter, being an offence of theft, for which you were fined.

7.  I adjourned the case for a probation officer’s background report which I have now considered. I am told that you accept the contents of that report.

8.  Mr Chan entered mitigation on your behalf. He told me that you are now 21 years of age, 20 at the time of the commission of the offence. The offence had been committed to obtain money as you could not find work after returning from the mainland. He stressed that you were extremely co-operative with the police on your arrest and that you pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity. When in work you had provided for your family as best you could.

9.  Mr Chan also drew my attention to the fact that this was your first offence involving drugs. He produced a letter which you had written to me in which you expressed your remorse and your intention to turn over a new leaf in the future.

10.  In sentencing you I took into account fully the mitigation that has been adduced, the nature of the charge which in fact is a very serious charge especially the amount of ketamine involved which is just under 22 grammes. However, I noted your youth and light criminal record; in fact at the time of the commission of the offence you were a person of clear record. Therefore, it follows from that this is your first offence involving drugs.

11.  I am told there is nothing to suggest you are a drug dependant. I also took in account your co-operation with the police especially the full and frank confession that you made. As Mr Chan so rightly said, the sentencing range is for an immediate custodial sentence of 4 to 6 years in this type of offence.

12.  Taking into account the mitigating factors that I have mentioned, I resolved to adopt the very lowest end of the scale. And therefore on this occasion I will take a starting point of 4 years’ imprisonment, reduced to 32 months for your plea of guilty. You will go to prison for 32 months which is 2 years and 8 months.