HKSAR v. KUNG CHI HUNG

 DCCC633/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 633 OF 2009

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Reasons for Sentence

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 1.  Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.  You have admitted that on 13 January 2009, outside Nos. 10-12 Stone Nullah Lane, Wanchai, you unlawfully trafficked in 12.57 grammes of a mixture containing 10.74 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.

2.  On that day, in the early hours of the morning, at about 5.38 am, a police officer saw you acting furtively at that location.  He therefore stopped you and conducted a search upon you.  Inside your left jeans pocket was found a plastic bag containing 85 plastic straws, each containing heroin and the amount as stated in the charge.  Upon arrest for trafficking in dangerous drugs, you admitted that you owed a loan shark $50,000

and that you had agreed to deliver these drugs to earn $5,000 cash.

3.  Your solicitor, Mr Yuen, has made very full mitigation on your behalf, and I have taken into account all that he has had to say.  You are 62 years of age and have a total of 30 related convictions to dangerous drugs:  19 are for possession of dangerous drugs; four are for possession of dangerous drugs for the purpose of unlawful trafficking; one is for possession of equipment fit and intended for injecting, smoking or inhaling dangerous drugs; and six are for trafficking in dangerous drugs.

4.  As Mr Yuen has mitigated on your behalf, you have been living for the majority of your life in prison since your 20s as you have been dependent on drugs since then.  You are single and have no relatives in Hong Kong.  Your immediate family have all passed away.  You have no skills or training and thus have been unemployed for many years.  When you are not in prison, you live off CSSA.  As a result, to maintain your drug dependency and to maintain your life, you had got yourself into a large debt.

5.  You now inform the court you realise your misdeed; you have done harm to yourself and to others; and during your recent incarceration, you are suspected of now suffering from a very serious lung problem.  I am sure you do not need me to tell you, but as you are getting older, your health is of utmost importance.  And it may be late in the day that you say that you are willing to reform yourself, but it is never too late.

6.  As you are well aware, there are sentencing tariffs for trafficking in heroin.  You had trafficked in 10.74 grammes of heroin.  Following the guidelines as laid down in R v Lau Tak Ming, I take a starting point of five years’ imprisonment and give you full credit for your plea of guilty and reduce that to one of three years four months’ imprisonment, to which you are so sentenced.