HKSAR v. LAU KIM FUNG

DCCC730/2010

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 730 OF 2010

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant you have pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. You have admitted that on 22 April 2010, at flat 3 2nd Floor, Block G, Chong Chien Court, Wyler Garden at To Kwa Wan in Hong Kong, you unlawfully trafficked in a dangerous drug of 25.29 grammes of a solid containing 21.66 grammes of cocaine.

2.  On the evening of 22 April 2010, a team of police officers wee carrying out an anti-narcotics operation at those premises.  They kept those premises under observation.  At around 9.20 pm, you emerged from the flat.  That was a residential flat you had rented.  A search was conducted in the flat and items were found.  Of those items were two transparent re-sealable plastic bags containing a total of 22.74 grammes of a solid containing 19.42 grammes of cocaine; inside a wooden cabinet an electronic scale; five packets of empty transparent re-sealable plastic bags and one transparent re-sealable plastic bag containing 10 transparent re-sealable plastic bags containing drugs.  In those 10 bags the total amount of drugs was 2.55 grammes of a solid containing 2.26 grammes of cocaine.

3.  Upon arrest and under caution you admitted to having purchased the crack cocaine with a view to selling those to others.  In a video recorded interview, you admitted that you had met a friend nicknamed Chu Chai who had offered to sell you the crack cocaine.  And with a view to earning money, you agreed to purchase the drugs from Chu Chai, that is about 24 to 25 grammes of cocaine at a price of $18,000.  It was then your intention to repackage the crack cocaine into small pellets of about 0.33 grammes in weight to sell to others at a price of $300 per pellet. 

4.  The electronic scale was used for the purposes of packaging the drugs into the empty transparent plastic bags.  You had already packaged 10 packets of drugs and left them in the bedroom.  You had, in fact, intended to sell these drugs to your friends and other people at bars but you had not yet done so. 

5.  Your counsel, Mr James Tze has mitigated fully on your behalf today.  I have taken into account all that he has had to say to me.  You are aged 36 and have one criminal conviction which has been spent but is not related to this kind of offence.  That offence was in 2004 and concerned drink driving.  As to your education background, you had studied in Hong Kong and in Australia and then in Canada.  You have worked in various jobs such as a motor car maintenance worker and worked in a telecommunication company as well as a nightclub leader.  You are single.  I am informed your father is 73 and is due for a heart operation soon and your mother is 65 and had a stroke in 2008. I am also informed that you have been a drug addict - a cocaine addict - and some of the drugs were for your own use.

6.  Mr Tze, your counsel, I am sure has informed you that the Court of Appeal, have laid down guidelines as to sentencing in respect of trafficking in drugs, particularly that of cocaine.  Your counsel rightly points out that the relevant starting point is one of between five and eight years’ imprisonment, falling within the second bracket of Lau Tak Ming. The second bracket being if you have between 10 and 50 grammes of drugs.  As I am sure you are well aware, trafficking in dangerous drugs is a very serious offence and immediate periods of imprisonment are warranted.

7.  The court in sentencing defendants for trafficking in dangerous drugs looks at the quantity of drugs involved, and in this case defendant, you had for the purpose of trafficking 21.68 grammes of cocaine.  In following the guidelines laid down in Lau Tak Ming an appropriate starting point for this quantity of drugs should be a term of 6 years’ imprisonment after trial.  However, you have pleaded guilty, showing your remorse and saved court’s time and for that you will given a one-third discount on that sentence and therefore you shall be sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment to which you are so sentenced.