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DCCC936/2012
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 936 OF 2012
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HKSAR |
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v. |
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Siu Chak-fung |
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| Date: |
27 November 2012 at 10.15 am |
| Present: |
Ms Laura Liu, PP, of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR |
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Mr Tang Yiu-wing, of Messrs Ivan Tang & Co., for the Defendant |
| Offence: |
Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物) |
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Reasons for Sentence
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1. The defendant has pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in 118.89 grammes of ketamine.
2. The facts admitted by the defendant state that at 10.30 pm on 20 July 2012, police officers were conducting an anti-dangerous-drugs operation in the vicinity of the Golden Arcade in Sham Shui Po. They saw a taxi stop outside an address in Kweilin Street, inside which was the defendant and a 14-year-old youth, who were both seen to be acting suspiciously and waiting in the taxi for about two minutes. The 14-year-old boy was called “Yeung”.
3. The officers demanded that the defendant and Yeung get off the taxi, but the defendant and Yeung appeared to be nervous and the defendant was shivering.
4. The defendant was taken to a rear lane and searched and found upon him was a resealable plastic bag containing 12 plastic bags containing the drugs the subject of the charge. This was located from underneath the defendant’s underwear.
5. The defendant remained silent when cautioned.
6. He was in possession of $370 in cash, two mobile phones, an ATM card and an Octopus card.
7. The officers made enquiries with the taxi driver, who told the police that at about 10.40 that night, he had picked up the juvenile Yeung at the Hoi Lai Estate and the juvenile had asked him to drive to the Precious Blood Hospital on Castle Peak Road.
8. The taxi stopped there for half a minute and the defendant and a female boarded the taxi, and the 14-year-old, the juvenile, asked the driver to go to Lai Chi Kok Road near Kweilin Street. Yeung told the taxi driver to stop on Fuk Wah Street and the female passenger got off the taxi.
9. Yeung then told the taxi driver to go to Kweilin Street and when they got there, they remained there for about two minutes and police officers then approached the taxi.
10. The street value of the ketamine is just over $14,500.
11. The defendant has one matter recorded on his record, a conviction for gambling, for which he was fined in September 2011.
12. He is aged 19, born in Hong Kong and educated to secondary level 2 standard. Since he left school in 2008, he has been working part-time in a restaurant, earning $2,000 per month.
13. He lives with his family in Sham Shui Po. His father is 87 years of age, retired and in poor health. Apparently his father is now living in a home for the elderly. His mother is 54 and works as a sanitation worker.
14. Because of the age discrepancy, he has found communication with his parents extremely difficult. He is the only son of the family and, apparently, the parents are extremely annoyed about his involvement in the present offence and they have refused to visit him in prison.
15. Whilst in prison, he hopes to take courses to improve his chances of work when he is discharged from prison and he also wishes to make up with his parents.
16. It was urged upon the court that the defendant was not the mastermind in this case and the defendant asks the court to deal with him leniently.
17. As counsel for the defendant has recognised, this is a serious offence and, given the quantity of drugs, there is very little he can say by way of mitigation. The main features of mitigation are the fact that the defendant is 19 and he has admitted this offence at the earliest opportunity.
18. An aggravating feature of the case is that at the time he was trafficking in these drugs, he was accompanied by a 14-year-old youth.
19. Trafficking in ketamine is a very serious problem in Hong Kong. Because of that, the Court of Appeal have laid down guidelines which impose severe sentences for those caught trafficking. The courts have said that for those convicted of trafficking in 50 to 300 grammes of ketamine, the appropriate sentence is 6 to 9 years.
20. The quantity of drugs in this case is 118.89 grammes.
21. I have taken into account the age of the defendant, I have taken into account the fact that he has pleaded guilty to this offence, and I have decided to adopt a starting point at the lowest end of that scale.
22. For trafficking in this quantity of drugs, it seems to me that a sentence of imprisonment is the only appropriate sentencing option.
23. I take a starting point of 6 years and reduce that to 4 years to reflect the guilty plea of the defendant.
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