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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
1. The defendant has pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs. The particulars of the offence are that on 20 June of last year, outside Room 205 of Fu Ying House in Sham Shui Po, he trafficked in 11.58 grammes of cocaine.
2. The Summary of Facts disclose that on the evening of 20 June, police officers conducted an anti-drugs operation outside Room 205, Fu Ying House, and laid ambush there. At 7.20 pm, the defendant and another male were seen walking along the corridor towards the flat, and they were intercepted. The drugs, the subject of the charge, were found on the defendant. He was carrying them in a black bag.
3. An officer was standing outside the house and saw somebody throw an electronic scale wrapped with papers from the window of the flat to the podium. When the defendant was arrested and cautioned, he admitted that all the drugs belonged to him. They had nothing to do with the person who was with him. He said he bought the drugs for $20,000. The drugs were later analysed and found to be cocaine.
4. The defendant at the time of his arrest had a clear record. He was released on bail in respect of this matter, and whilst on bail, he committed another offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs. That offence was dealt with in the magistrates’ court two days ago, and for that offence of trafficking in 1.6 grammes of cocaine, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment.
5. The defendant is 17 years of age, and as I mentioned previously, had a clear record prior to his arrest for this matter. He was co-operative with the police, and counsel urges upon me that he was ignorant of the law and he was stupid to commit this offence.
6. However, I note that having been arrested for this offence, he would have appeared before the magistrate, he would have had the advantage of advice by the duty lawyer before the transfer of this matter to the District Court. At that stage, he could have been under no illusion as to the likely sentence for offences of this kind. No doubt that he would have been told by those advising him that the usual sentence for trafficking in this amount of cocaine is between 5 to 8 years. Having been released on bail, he committed an identical offence.
7. He left the court very little option other than to impose the usual sentence for this type of offence. What is exercising my mind is whether or not the sentence should be consecutive to the other sentence of 16 months that has already been imposed upon him. The law says that where people commit offences on bail, the sentence should be consecutive, and to ignore that would be to encourage people on bail to commit further offences with impunity.
8. However, the defendant is only 17 years of age. The only mitigation in this case is his guilty plea, and the starting point that would be adopted for this offence is one of 5 years’ imprisonment, and with the discount for the guilty plea, that would be reduced to 40 months’ imprisonment. That is a substantial sentence for anybody, let alone a young man of 17. I have therefore decided that I intend to impose a sentence of 40 months’ imprisonment starting from today.