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DCCC1224/2009
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1224 OF 2009
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Date:
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26 March 2010 at 10.07 am
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Present:
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Mr David Boyton, Counsel on fiat, for HKSAR
Mr Luke McGuinniety, instructed by Ivan Tang & Co., for the Defendant
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Offence:
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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 one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely 22.06 grammes of a solid containing 19.57 grammes of cocaine.
2. The facts are all too common. At about 7.57 pm, the defendant was seen near a public toilet in Sau Mau Ping acting suspiciously. Upon being intercepted and searched, in the defendant’s left front pocket was found the dangerous drug, which is the subject matter of the charge. Also found on him were three mobile telephones and $40.
3. The drugs were subsequently examined and found to contain a total of 22.06 grammes of a solid containing 19.57 grammes of cocaine.
4. The defendant is aged 31 and has four previous convictions. All of them, except for the last one, were in 1996 to 1999. And the last offence was in 2002, when he was fined for gambling.
5. He has no previous offences relating to drugs.
6. There is nothing particularly exceptional in his background. The defendant was a construction worker and he was earning some $20,000 a month. He is married with two children and I am informed that he committed this offence because of gambling debts.
7. Despite all this, his wife still pleads to this court for leniency for him and I do recognise that he is the sole breadwinner of the family. But he is, unfortunately, the architect of his own misfortune. He has a good, loving family, according to Mr McGuinniety, but he has ruined that by his own selfish actions.
8. The courts have all along viewed trafficking in dangerous drug very seriously, and therefore guidelines have been laid down. These guidelines are laid down in order to deter people like the defendant who attempted to earn easy money by trafficking in dangerous drugs. The harm it causes to society is great and the defendant, being a father, should know that.
9. The guidelines laid down in Lau Tak Ming is said by the Court of Appeal to be used also for trafficking in cocaine. So for trafficking in amounts of between 10 to 50 grammes, 5 to 8 years’ imprisonment have been laid down as a guideline. The defendant was found to have trafficked in 19.57 grammes, which would call for a starting point of between 5 and 5½ years.
10. In the circumstances I have decided to adopt the lower end of the starting point and so the defendant I would sentence in the following way. The starting point in sentence will be 5 years and one-third off will be 40 months’ imprisonment.
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