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HCCC 339/2015
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO 339 OF 2015
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| Before: |
DHCJ Lugar-Mawson |
| Date: |
15 December 2015 at 4.20 pm |
| Present: |
Mr Edward Laskey, on fiat, for HKSAR |
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Mr Richard Donald, instructed by Cheung & Liu, 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: Chau Yui Ming, I am not going to read a sermon because
it will be lost on you. The dangers presented by ‘Ice’ are
well-known and they would have been well-known to you when you
engaged in this filthy trade.
You choose, as was your right, to defend the case, but in doing so you robbed yourself of the most powerful mitigation of a plea of guilty which would have permitted me to have reduced your sentence quite substantially.
Save for the fact that you have never before been convicted of trafficking in dangerous drugs, you have no mitigation whatsoever. You are a career petty crook with a contempt for authority.
Mr Donald will have told you that there are guidelines as to how I and all judges are to sentence people who engage in trafficking in ‘Ice’. Mr Donald will also have told you that judges are expected to follow those guidelines unless there are exceptional reasons not to do so, and there are no exceptional reasons in your case.
I take into account the fact that you had a small quantity of ketamine in your possession along with the ‘Ice’. Following the guidelines I spoke of I am taking a starting point sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment.
I am prepared to accept that some of the ‘Ice’ was for self-consumption and am, therefore, reducing that sentence by 2 years to one of 10 years, and that is the period of imprisonment you will serve for this offence, 10 years.
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