|
HCCC53/2009
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 53 OF 2009
----------------------
----------------------
Before: DHCJ Longley
Date: 2 April 2009 at 2.37 pm
|
Present:
|
Ms Laura Ng, SPP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr James H M McGowan, assigned by the Legal Aid Department, for the Accused
|
Offence: Possession of a dangerous drug, etc. (管有危險藥物等罪項)
Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above case
COURT: Lai Tsz-kit, you have been committed to this court for sentence following your plea of guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to one charge of possession of dangerous drugs and one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
Both offences are alleged to have occurred on the same day, 17 June last year. Insofar as the 1st charge is concerned, you were stopped by a police officer at the junction of Bute Street and Fa Yuen Street at around 5.30 pm in the evening. A small packet containing 1.52 grammes of a powder containing 1.31 grammes of ketamine was found in your trouser pocket. You admitted that those drugs were for your own consumption.
The police then took you up to your room at 180 Fa Yuen Street and gained access to the premises using the keys that had been found on you. As they entered the premises, somebody threw a purple bag from a window of the flat. That bag contained a mobile telephone, a number of transparent resealable plastic bags, an electronic scale and a notebook. You later admitted that all those items were related to your drug trafficking business.
Inside the flat the police found six packets of drugs, and those are the drugs that form the basis of the 2nd count, the count of trafficking. One of those bags contained 2.57 grammes of a powder containing 2.22 grammes of ketamine. The other five bags contained 103.72 grammes of a powder containing 63.46 grammes of cocaine. It appears that the retail value of the cocaine alone was in the region of $77,000.
You admitted to the police that the cocaine was in your possession for the purpose of selling it. I am prepared to assume that the ketamine found in the flat was for your own consumption.
I have listened to all that has been said on your behalf by Mr McGowan. I have also read the letters that have been written to the court by you and by your parents. You are somebody who obviously had a good start in life, a good education, and when you returned to Hong Kong you worked in responsible jobs for two well-known Hong Kong companies. It does appear, as Mr McGowan has said, that your downfall has been dangerous drugs.
Insofar as the 1st charge is concerned, the charge of possession of dangerous drugs, I adopt a starting point of 12 months’ imprisonment. In view of the small quantity involved, I consider that the latent risk that you would traffick in those drugs was minimal, and therefore that 12 months is the period that I adopt as the starting point.
Insofar as the drugs which were found in the flat are concerned, the cocaine in particular, I adopt a starting point of 8 years’ imprisonment. In adopting that starting point, I bear in mind that this is your first conviction for trafficking in dangerous drugs. Had you had previous convictions for trafficking, I would have adopted a higher starting point.
The only significant mitigation in this case are your pleas of guilty, and those entitle you to the usual discount of one-third.
On Charge 1, therefore, I sentence you to 8 months’ imprisonment.
On Charge 2, I sentence you to 64 months’ imprisonment. That is 5 years 4 months.
I order that both sentences run concurrently with each other. Therefore, the total sentence imposed upon you today is 64 months’ imprisonment.
(Remainder of proceedings not required)
Court rises - 2.56 pm
2 April 2009
|