CRIMINAL CASE NO. 228 OF 2012
sentence in the Court of First Instance.
Today you have pleaded guilty to the charge and admitted the Summary of Facts before me, and the conviction was confirmed.
In sentencing, I have considered the whole circumstances of the case, including its nature and facts, in particular the nature and quantity of the dangerous drugs involved, your background, and mitigation put forward on your behalf.
The facts of the case are simple. On 12 January 2012 you and another man were intercepted by police officers. After some initial inquiry, the two of you were taken to a unit in a nearby building. There was a woman in the flat. Some packaging paraphernalia were found.
There you were arrested. Under caution you admitted to have swallowed 3 ounces of heroin. Later, in the hospital, you excreted three packets of substance later confirmed to be a total of 118.9 grammes of a solid containing 74.81 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
In a subsequent interview, you admitted that you had bought the drug alone and swallowed the three packets of drugs. You then met at Guangdong in the mainland the man who was with you when the police officers intercepted you. The two of you took a bus to Prince Edward together.
I was told that you are 46 years of age. You received education up to Primary 6 level. You have worked since the age of 13 in various jobs, including having worked in a fur factory, as well as having worked as a transportation worker and waiter in restaurants. At the time of arrest you were employed on a casual basis.
Your mother is 85 years of age, and I was told that you made regular financial contribution of about $2,000 a month to her.
You are not a first-time offender. Indeed, on 17 previous occasions you have been convicted. The first one dated back to 1993, when you were 27 years old. You were sent to DATC for treatment for three offences of possession of dangerous drugs. Your counsel told me that you started to be addicted at that time. Thereafter, you have been convicted 10 more times for the offence of possession of dangerous drugs. You have also been convicted for committing four offences of trafficking in dangerous drugs. The last such conviction took place in 2004. At that time, for two offences, you were sentenced to a total of 5 years and 4 months’ imprisonment. You have also been convicted three times for the offence of keeping a divan.
Your counsel, Mr Boyton, urged me to note that these previous convictions of trafficking involved a small quantity of dangerous drug only. This is the first time you were involved in a more substantial quantity of dangerous drug. Moreover, the last of these convictions took place eight years ago. For these reasons, he asked me not to consider an upward adjustment of your sentence.
The dangerous drug you trafficked in was heroin. The total narcotic content of the heroin hydrochloride was 74.81 grammes. The Court of Appeal suggested, in the case of R v Lau Tak Ming [1992] HKLR 370, that a sentence of 8 to 12 years’ imprisonment should be considered for trafficking in heroin if the narcotic content is 50 to 200 grammes.
In all the circumstances, I do not find there are good grounds to depart from the tariff. Despite what your counsel has said ably for you, I cannot ignore your previous record of committing offences of the same nature. I also have to take into account the fact that you took the dangerous drugs into Hong Kong from the mainland.
For these factors, in my judgment, the sentence should be enhanced by 1½ years.
In all the circumstances, I consider a starting point of 10 years appropriate. You pleaded guilty to the offence and are therefore entitled to a one-third discount. In my judgment, in all the circumstances, this is the extent of discount you are entitled to.
Defendant, please stand up. For the reasons aforesaid, I sentence you to an imprisonment term of 6 years and 8 months.