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HCCC 62/2020
[2020] HKCFI 3131
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO 62 OF 2020
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| Date: |
15 September 2020 at 10.19 am |
| Present: |
Ms Chong Man-yan Cherry, PP of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR |
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Ms Wong Kam-hing Fanny, instructed by Cheung & Liu, assigned by DLA, for the accused |
| Offence: |
(1) & (2) 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
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COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in dangerous drugs before a magistrate and is committed for sentence.
The dangerous drug involved in relation to the 1st charge is 6.35 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 6.35 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride. The dangerous drug involved in relation to the 2nd charge is 24.75 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 6.18 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
The estimated street value of all the dangerous drugs involved is around HK$17,000.
The defendant was stopped by police on 5 January 2019 at odd hours in North Point, Hong Kong. He was found out to be a wanted person for a non-payment of a traffic fine and was brought back to police station.
In a body search conducted in the police station, the drug involved in relation to the 1st charge was found to be concealed under the defendant’s underpants. He was later brought back to his residence and the drug involved in relation to the 2nd charge was found.
The defendant is 38 years old. He was born in Hong Kong, educated up to Form 4 level. He has 11 previous conviction, including three counts of trafficking-in-dangerous-drugs conviction, two of which was convicted in 2003. For these two offence, he was sentenced to a total of 6 years and 8 months’ imprisonment. The other conviction of trafficking in dangerous drugs was in 2016 for which he was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months’ imprisonment. For that offence, he was discharged from imprisonment on 14 September 2017.
Ms Wong, counsel for the defendant, submitted a written mitigation submission to the court. Ms Wong submitted that the defendant is now very remorseful. Because of the arrival of his young son, defendant is now very different from himself, from what he was before. The baby boy was born in October 2018 and because of financial pressure, he had to undertake two different jobs and therefore he resorted to taking ‘Ice’ to keep himself awaken. The mother of the boy has now left him and the boy is now being taken care of by the defendant’s mother.
Now, trafficking in dangerous drugs is a very serious offence. The Court of Appeal has laid down a sentencing tariff in respect of trafficking in different kind of dangerous drugs.
For trafficking in ‘Ice’, the Court of Appeal has laid down sentencing tariff in the case HKSAR v Tam Yi Chun. Under the tariff, for trafficking in 10 to 70 grammes of ‘Ice’, the starting point for sentencing should be in the range of 7 to 11 years of imprisonment.
As submitted by Ms Wong, in the present case, the court should consider the total amount of drugs found and the quantity is 12.53 grammes. For this quantity, the appropriate starting point should be 7 years and 2 months’ imprisonment.
This is the third time the defendant committed the same offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs. For this factor, I consider it proper to give an enhancement of sentence and because of that, the starting point of sentence should be enhanced to 7 years and 6 months. However, on the other hand, as the defendant is evidently a drug addict and for this factor, I will reduce the starting point from 7 years and 6 months to 7 years.
The defendant has pleaded guilty. He is entitled to a discount of sentence for one-third. The sentence of 7 years is therefore reduced to 56 months.
Father John has written a letter to this court, saying that the defendant has taken part in his anti-drug campaign. For that, I will accord a token discount of 2 months for the overall sentence. The sentence is therefore reduced to 54 months’ imprisonment.
So for the 1st charge, the defendant is sentenced to 54 months’ imprisonment. For the 2nd charge, the defendant is sentenced to 54 months’ imprisonment, and the sentence for the 1st and 2nd charge be served concurrently.
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