COURT: Defendant, you have pleaded guilty in the court below to two charges, the first being an offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug, being 97.16 grammes of “Ice”, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, and the second, an offence of possession of a dangerous drug, being 2.05 grammes of “Ice”, contrary to section 8(1)(a) and (2) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. You appear in this court having been committed here for sentence.
The summary of facts, which you have confirmed as being true, indicate that on 28 January this year, you were intercepted by Customs officers upon your arrival at the Lok Ma Chau Control Point. Subsequent to a search, the drugs being the subject matter of the first charge were discovered from inside your underpants wrapped in tissue paper. You told the Customs officer that the drugs were “Ice” and that you were carrying it for someone, for which you received a reward of $2,000. You were subsequently taken to your residence at Sau Mau Ping Estate where the drugs being the subject matter of the second charge were found.
You are 29 years of age, a single mother with two young children, one of whom is being cared for by your mother and the other in foster care due to your involvement in these offences. You quite stupidly agreed to carry this sizeable quantity of “Ice” over the border for $2,000 as Chinese New Year was approaching and you were in need of some extra cash.
I have read all of the touching letters of support that have been put before me this morning and I take these and all that has been said on your behalf by your counsel into account in sentencing you. It is, however, your plea of guilty to these two charges that affords you the greatest mitigation and I will give you the customary discount in sentence to reflect this.
With regard to the first charge, the relevant sentencing guidelines are contained in AG v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125, and for quantities of “Ice” between 70 to 300 grammes, the relevant starting point falls between 10 to 14 years imprisonment. In the present case, the quantity you carried into Hong Kong is 97.16 grammes. Accordingly, I take as my starting point a sentence of 10 and a half years imprisonment.
There is an aggravating feature in which clearly an international element exists by you bringing these drugs from China into Hong Kong. I therefore will increase that starting point by 9 months to reflect that aggravating feature, arriving at a starting point of 11 years and 3 months imprisonment.
I give you the full one-third discount in sentence to reflect your plea of guilty, arriving at a sentence of 7 and a half years imprisonment on charge 1. With regard to charge 2, my starting point is one of 24 months imprisonment. I will also discount this sentence by one-third to reflect your plea of guilty, coming to 16 months imprisonment on charge 2.
Due to the question of totality of sentence, I will order the sentences on charges 1 and 2 to run wholly concurrently with each other, arriving at a total sentence of 7 and a half years imprisonment.