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DCCC1200/2010
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1200 OF 2010
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HKSAR |
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v. |
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Kwok Tsz-wing |
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| Before: |
H H Judge Longley |
| Date: |
10 March 2011 at 11.10 am |
| Present: |
Mr Leo Chan, Counsel on fiat, for HKSAR
Mr Yu Chun-cheung Peter, instructed by Messrs Littlewoods, assigned by the Director of Legal Aid, for the Defendant |
| Offence: |
Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物) |
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Reasons for Sentence
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1. You have been convicted on your own plea of simple possession of 23.91 grammes of a powder containing 19.16 grammes of ketamine. You were originally charged with trafficking in those drugs, but the prosecution have accepted a plea to simple possession.
2. Shortly after 10.30 pm on 6 September last year, the police saw you getting out from the front passenger door of a light-goods vehicle, which had stopped in Portland Street near its junction with Shantung Street.
3. You were accompanied by two other persons, a man and a woman. You went with them into a nearby restaurant. About 20 minutes later, you left the restaurant and returned to the vehicle. The police stopped and searched you and then started to search the vehicle. In the course of the search, you admitted that there was ketamine in the glove compartment by the front passenger seat which belonged to you and had nothing to do with your friends.
4. The police then searched the compartment and found the drugs which are the subject of the charge in four transparent plastic bags.
5. When you were interviewed, you admitted that you had bought the ketamine from a man in Wong Tai Sin at an agreed price of HK$2,000. You had subsequently met a female friend and you and she had been picked up by the owner of the vehicle with a view to all three of you having a meal together. You said that you had put the drugs into the glove compartment and left them there while you and your two friends went to have a meal.
6. It is estimated that the retail value of the drugs at the time was HK$2,845.
7. The drugs, as I have said, were in four bags. You told the police that you had asked the man who supplied the drugs to you to divide the drugs into several bags so that you would not take too much each time.
8. It is somewhat curious in those circumstances that the drugs were not divided, at least roughly, into equal portions. As it was, two of the four bags contained the bulk of the drugs. One contained 14.53 grammes of a powder containing 11.71 grammes of ketamine, and another 6.75 grammes of a powder containing 5.34 grammes of ketamine.
9. Despite this curious feature, I have nevertheless to bear in mind that you have only been convicted of the offence of simple possession of these drugs and I must sentence you on that basis.
10. You are a young man who has a long history of coming before the courts in connection with dangerous drugs. You have seven previous convictions of the offence of possession of dangerous drugs and one previous conviction of possession of Part 1 Poison.
11. I have been informed by Mr Yu, your counsel, that the offence of possession of Part 1 Poison, of which you were convicted in 2000, was also an offence involving ketamine, at a time ketamine was not yet classified as a dangerous drug.
12. You are currently serving a sentence of 14 months’ imprisonment that was imposed on you just over 2 weeks ago on 22 February of this year in respect of simple possession of 32.61 grammes of a powder containing 27.29 grammes of ketamine on 4 June 2010. You were on bail awaiting trail for that offence at the time you committed the offence before the court today.
13. It is not disputed that you are, or at least were a drug addict at the time of the offence. It is said on your behalf that you had just received your month’s salary and you were purchasing a month’s supply of drugs.
14. In view of all these circumstances, in my view the appropriate preliminary starting point is 18 months’ imprisonment.
15. In considering whether there should be any additional enhancement to reflect the latent risk of you parting with possession of the drugs or any part of them to others, I take into account that you have never previously been convicted of an offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
16. I also take into account your addiction to dangerous drugs and the fact that at the time you apparently had a stable job with a reasonable income.
17. However, even on your own account, this was a month’s supply of ketamine and these drugs were in four packages which would have facilitated the disposal of part of the drugs to others.
18. The judge who sentenced you last month felt that an enhancement of 3 months was sufficient to reflect the latent risk of you disposing of those drugs to others.
19. I am prepared to adopt the same enhancement in this case. The ultimate starting point I adopt is therefore 21 months’ imprisonment. You are entitled to the usual discount of one-third to reflect your plea of guilty. The sentence I therefore pass is one of 14 months’ imprisonment. I have considered whether in the circumstances I should order that any part of that sentence run concurrently with the sentence you are now serving.
20. I have concluded that it should not. The circumstances of this offence were very similar to that committed by you on 4 June last year. Knowing that you were awaiting trial for that offence and while you were on bail for that offence, you went ahead and committed this offence. I therefore order that the sentence I impose on you today should run consecutively to the sentence you are now serving.
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P.K.M. Longley |
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District Court Judge |
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