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HCCC 195/2018
[2018] HKCFI 2853
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO 195 OF 2018
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HKSAR |
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HERRY Jane Yusuph |
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| Before: |
DHCJ Lugar-Mawson |
| Date: |
5 November 2018 at 11 am |
| Present: |
Ms Lily Yip, SPP (Ag) of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR |
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Ms Nisha Mohamed, instructed by C O Yu & Co, assigned by DLA, 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
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COURT:
Jane Yusuph Herry, I am not going to read a sermon to you. You willingly lent your aid to the filthy trade of drug trafficking and your offence is exacerbated as you attempted to bring cocaine into Hong Kong. Any problems that your family and yourself face, or may face, back home in Tanzania are of your own making and they are not of mitigating value.
I am treating you as a first time offender. Your only mitigation, and it is nevertheless a very powerful one, is your early plea of guilty before the magistrate. That plea was made at the earliest opportunity our system of justice allows. An early plea of guilty permits me to grant you quite a substantial reduction in the sentence that you would have received have you taken this case to trial and being found guilty by a jury.
I am sure that your counsel, Ms Mohamed, would have told you that there are strict guidelines for all judges to follow when we come to sentence those people who choose to traffic in dangerous drug and she would have told you that we are expected to keep those guidelines unless here are very strong reasons not to do so and there are no very strong reasons in your case.
In this case where you attempted to bring in a mixture weighing 63.5 grammes which had 48.3 grammes of cocaine in it, following the guidelines that I have just spoken of, your sentence after trial would have been based on the following matters. It would be a starting point sentence of 8 years' imprisonment based on the weight of the narcotic in the cocaine that you brought in and you would have faced an extra 6 months' imprisonment to reflect the international aspect of this case, the bringing of dangerous drugs into Hong Kong which would have meant that after trial your sentence would have been one of 8½ years' imprisonment.
Because of your plea of guilty I am permitted to reduce that quite considerably, in fact, by one-third and your sentence therefore is one of 5 years and 8 months' imprisonment.
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