Miss Munira Moosdeen, instructed by Ellen Au & Co
HCCC 233/2009
HCCC233/2009
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 233 OF 2009
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Before:
Deputy High Court Judge Longley
Date:
6 October 2009 at 10.21 am
Present:
Mr J Necholas, on fiat, for HKSAR Miss Munira Moosdeen, instructed by Ellen Au & Co., for the Accused
Offence:
Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物)
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Transcript of the Audio Recording of the Sentence in the above Case
COURT: Chan Hon-chung, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking in 13.62 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 13.37 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
Those drugs were found in a plastic bag inside a cigarette packet in the pocket of the jacket of your suit when you were stopped by the police in the early hours of the morning of 11 March this year in Tung Chung. Those drugs had an estimated retail value of approximately $9,000. You told the police that you had been asked by somebody you knew called Anthony to deliver the cigarette packet to a person called “Ho Ma”, who had helped you on a previous occasion. You are a young man of 23. You have never been in trouble with the police before. I have heard that you had a stable job with a well-known local estate agency. You were described by that company as being a hardworking employee. It appears that you were living at home and contributing to the family finances. Undoubtedly this offence will have caused great distress to your family. It gives this court no pleasure whatsoever to sentence a young man of your background to a substantial period of imprisonment. However, the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs is so serious that the court is left with no choice but to do so. In the circumstances of this case I am able to take a starting point at the bottom of the tariff band laid down by the Court of Appeal, namely 7 years’ imprisonment. The only really significant mitigation in this case is your plea of guilty and your preparedness to admit the offence, indicating remorse on your part. Those factors entitle you to the usual discount of one-third. I sentence you to 4 years 8 months’ imprisonment, that is 56 months.
Those drugs were found in a plastic bag inside a cigarette packet in the pocket of the jacket of your suit when you were stopped by the police in the early hours of the morning of 11 March this year in Tung Chung. Those drugs had an estimated retail value of approximately $9,000. You told the police that you had been asked by somebody you knew called Anthony to deliver the cigarette packet to a person called “Ho Ma”, who had helped you on a previous occasion.
You are a young man of 23. You have never been in trouble with the police before. I have heard that you had a stable job with a well-known local estate agency. You were described by that company as being a hardworking employee. It appears that you were living at home and contributing to the family finances. Undoubtedly this offence will have caused great distress to your family.
It gives this court no pleasure whatsoever to sentence a young man of your background to a substantial period of imprisonment. However, the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs is so serious that the court is left with no choice but to do so. In the circumstances of this case I am able to take a starting point at the bottom of the tariff band laid down by the Court of Appeal, namely 7 years’ imprisonment. The only really significant mitigation in this case is your plea of guilty and your preparedness to admit the offence, indicating remorse on your part. Those factors entitle you to the usual discount of one-third.
I sentence you to 4 years 8 months’ imprisonment, that is 56 months.