CRIMINAL CASE NO. 124 OF 2012
4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 134.
She was committed to this court for sentence. This morning the defendant confirmed her plea and her acceptance of the Summary of Facts.
Briefly, the defendant, a Thai passenger, was stopped and searched by the Customs on 17 October 2011 when she was about to take a transit flight to Cambodia, having arrived some time earlier at the Hong Kong International Airport from South Africa.
As a result of the search two slabs of methamphetamine hydrochloride, commonly known as “Ice”, were found hidden inside a concealed compartment of the rucksack which the defendant was carrying.
Upon subsequent examination the drug was found to be a total of 2.19 kilogrammes of “Ice” with an estimated street value of about HK$2.1 million. Under caution the defendant admitted that she was asked to take the drug from South Africa to Cambodia for a reward.
Mitigation
The defendant is aged 25 and was born in Thailand. She separated from her husband two years ago and has two children from her marriage. The daughter is said to be staying with her husband’s family, while the son is staying with the defendant’s mother.
In order to contribute financially to the son’s up keeping the defendant used to work in a pub in Thailand.
She has a clear record in Hong Kong and it was also said that she has a clear record in Thailand as well.
In mitigation it was said that as the defendant’s daughter was reported to have been abused by the members of the defendant’s former husband, she therefore would like to earn more money in order to get back the custody of the daughter.
It was also said that although the defendant knew she was carrying a dangerous drug, she did not know the precise quality and quantity of the drug. But I should immediately pause here to state that in my view if the defendant turned a blind eye to that, that is not a matter which could assist her in her mitigation.
The Sentence
In the case of HKSAR v An Unknown Person, alias, Stojanovic Milka and Skopljak, Sara, CACC 110 of 2010, 3 November 2010, unreported, various cases concerning sentencing in large quantities of dangerous drugs were referred to the Court of Appeal. However the Court of Appeal stated:
“For reasons which we have provided, we would not go so far as to say that in this category of offence a court is unconcerned with sentences in other cases but, as we have earlier intimated, the exercise in comparison cannot sensibly be taken to the degree of fine tuning to which the submissions in these cases are tending.”
Therefore each case must be assessed on its own facts.
Having considered the amount of “Ice” involved in this case and the relevant facts, I am going to adopt an initial starting point of 22 years.
However, as the defendant intended to take the drug from South Africa to Cambodia, I would make an upward adjustment of two years to reflect this international element, thus increasing the starting point to one of 24 years.
The defendant pleaded guilty and she will receive a one-third reduction for that. Although the court is sympathetic over the defendant’s family situation that was certainly not the excuse for her to commit such a serious offence.
Therefore other than the defendant’s plea there is nothing in this case which will warrant any further reduction in sentence.
The defendant is therefore to serve a term of 16 years’ imprisonment for this offence.