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HCCC 155/2019
[2019] HKCFI 2081
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO 155 OF 2019
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| Date: |
8 August 2019 at 9.41 am |
| Present: |
Ms Chan Sze-yan, SPP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR |
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Mr Chan Sai-kit, instructed by Ivan Tang & Co, assigned by DLA, for the accused |
| Offence: |
Trafficking in dangerous drugs (販運危險藥物) |
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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case
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COURT:
The defendant pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134.
He was stopped and searched by Custom officers and in his sling bag, five mobile phones, 10 tablets of methadone and HK$21,000-odd were found amongst other things.
The keys in his possession opened up to a flat in which 74 packets of cocaine and two packets of ‘Ice’ were found. There were ziplock bags and packaging paraphernalia.
The defendant admitted to have bought the drugs for reselling. He claimed that it cost him HK$6 million but he has not yet paid for those drugs yet.
The premises were rented by him around a month ago. The drugs, on later analysis, were found to be 74,060 grammes of a solid and powder containing 60,678 grammes of cocaine and 864.01 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 856 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
The estimated street value of those were around HK$73 million.
The defendant is now aged 53. He has 28 occasions of previous court appearances with 35 charges of conviction. Many related to dangerous drugs. In 2009 June, he was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months’ imprisonment for trafficking in dangerous drugs. His last conviction was for possession of dangerous drugs in 2017 for which he received 10 months’ imprisonment and last discharged from prison on 18 April 2018 and in around two months’ time, he committed the present offence.
Counsel has realistically submitted that in the present case, with this quantity of drugs involved, there is no mitigation other than his guilty plea at the earliest possible instance.
In sentencing the defendant, I have taken into account the nature of the offence, the nature and quantity of the drugs involved and the sentencing tariffs as well as mitigation forwarded by counsel on his behalf.
Referring to the case of Abdallah, the amount of drugs involved in this case is well above the tariff laid down there at 15 kilogrammes (ie starting point of 30 years). Given the high starting point, I am not in favour of a straitjacket mathematical approach. Further, the ‘Ice’ would not significantly affect the starting point which I am going to adopt. I am of the view that a starting point of 33 years is appropriate in the circumstances of the present case.
He is entitled to the one-third discount for his guilty plea. He is sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment.
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