CRIMINAL CASE NO. 131 OF 2010
COURT: On arraignment on 31 August 2010, you pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawful trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 1,000 grammes of a mixture containing 560 grammes of heroin hydrochloride, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134 of the Laws of Hong Kong.
On the evening of 17 November 2009, you were detained by Customs & Excise officers as you passed through the Customs Arrival Hall at Hong Kong International Airport, having arrived on a flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and examination of a rucksack in your possession revealed the presence of a packet concealed within the lining of the rucksack, which packet contained the dangerous drugs the subject of the count on the indictment.
After a test with a reagent reacted positively to the presence of heroin in the mixture in the packet, and in response to arrest and the administration of the words of caution, you said that you did not know to whom the rucksack belonged. However, in a video record of interview conducted a little while later, you said that you had been given the rucksack by your boyfriend in Malaysia and asked to deliver it to friends of his who would contact you in Guangzhou. He had paid for your airline ticket and gave you US$500.
You are 27 years of age and a citizen of Indonesia. You worked in Hong Kong as a domestic helper on two occasions: first in the period 2005 to 2007 and then in the period April to November 2009. You terminated the second contract of employment. You have never been convicted of any criminal offence in Hong Kong or Indonesia.
Although your trial was set down to commence on 31 August 2010, in advance of that hearing, by a letter dated 26 August 2010, those representing you intimated to the court and the prosecution that you intended to plead guilty. That you did.
The real substance of the mitigation advanced on your behalf is that you have pleaded guilty. You are entitled to a one‑third discount from a starting point taken for sentence.
The judgment of the Court of Appeal in The Queen v Lau Tak Ming, [1992] HKLR 370, sets out the appropriate starting point for sentence. You fall within the bracket of between 400 and 600 grammes, for which the Court said that a sentence of 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment is appropriate. By obvious arithmetic you fall 40 grammes short of the upper limit of that band.
The fact that you were unlawfully trafficking in heroin by bringing it into Hong Kong is an aggravating feature in the commission of the offence. I reflect that factor of aggravation by an increase of 1 year’s imprisonment on the sentence of 19 years’ imprisonment that I take as the appropriate starting point for sentence. Accordingly, the overall starting point for sentence to which a discount is to be applied is 20 years’ imprisonment.
As I have indicated, you are entitled to a one-third discount from that total. Accordingly, the sentence imposed upon you is one of 13 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.