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HCCC6/2009
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 6 OF 2009
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Before: Deputy High Court Judge Lugar-Mawson in court
Date: 24 March 2009 at 10.14 am
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Present:
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Ms Kathie Cheung, SPP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr R Donald and Ms W Chu, instructed by Francis Kong & Co., for the Accused
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Offence: Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物)
Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above case
COURT: Chan Tin-yu, stand up.
Chan Tin-you, you have pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking in a vast quantity of Ice, 4½ kilograms of the substance.
Trafficking in dangerous drugs is rightly considered to be a very serious criminal offence, for which the legislature has set a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. For the very large quantity of Ice that you involved yourself in this case you must receive a very long prison sentence. From what he said to me this morning, I know that your counsel Mr Donald has told you that that is inevitable.
The fact that you don’t have a criminal record until now counts for very little in offences of this nature.
I note your claimed reasons for getting involved in this filthy trade, but I have to bear in mind that there are many thousands of people in Hong Kong whose family members fall ill and yet they never dream of involving themselves in drug trafficking to pay their family members’ medical expenses. I also note that in Hong Kong good quality medical care is easy to come by and is heavily subsidised by the government. There is no reason for anybody to get in debt in order to receive medical care in Hong Kong.
As Mr Donald appreciates, your only mitigation is your early plea of guilty. It indicates remorse on your part, or a degree of remorse on your part. Perhaps, more importantly, it indicates realism on your part and an acceptance of the inevitable.
Because of your plea of guilty you are entitled to a substantial discount in reduction of the sentence that you would have received had you taken this matter to trial and been found guilty by a jury. Had you been found guilty by a jury after trial, with the amount of Ice involved - as I have said earlier, 4½ kilograms - I would have had in mind a sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment.
Because of the matters I find going to your mitigation, and most importantly your early plea of guilty, I am reducing that to a sentence of 16 years and 6 months imprisonment, which is the sentence I now pass on you.
Defendant's application for leave to appeal against sentence to Court of Appeal granted. Please refer to CACC366/2010 dated 29 June 2011 |