CRIMINAL CASE NO. 168 OF 2010
COURT: You have pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court and so this is a timely plea for which you will be given the benefit by way of discount to the sentence you would otherwise have received.
You were arrested on 28 January 2010, after you had been intercepted at the exit of the Green Channel inside the Customs Arrival Hall at the Lo Wu Control Point. You were found to be carrying seven plastic bags containing a solid which, in total, weighed 169.37 grammes of which the cocaine content weighed 109.2 grammes. The cocaine was worth, in terms of its street value, $169,370. The drugs had been secreted inside two specially made corsets being worn around your waist.
You immediately admitted your guilt to the Customs officers who arrested you, telling them that you were trying to earn, as you put it, ‘quick money’. You had been told where you could find the drugs in Shenzhen and, when you got to Hong Kong, you were to wait for telephone calls before you would find out where to deliver the drugs.
You are 46 years old now and have a prison record, but for offences of a wholly different nature which, for present purposes, I can ignore. However, there is an aggravating feature in this case as this was trafficking by importation from the Mainland.
Other than your plea of guilty which, as I have said, will receive the full discount, there is really no other mitigation.
For offences of this kind and gravity, the sentences are clearly prescribed. Having regard to all the circumstances here, including what is called ‘the international element’, I shall take a starting point of 9½ years, enhanced by 6 months to 10 years for the importation. After discounting this to reflect your plea of guilty, the sentence you must now serve is 6 years and 8 months.