HKSAR v. Chung Chi Keung

HCCC 350/2015

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 350 OF 2015

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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT: On 30 December 2014, you were stopped in the street at Yau Ma Tei and inside your underpants were dangerous drugs. There was 22.81 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride and 0.19 grammes of cocaine. I will say now that the amount of cocaine is small and it has no impact on the sentence I pass today.

You are a long-term drug addict, and we have already summarised your long history of convictions for crime earlier in the case. That allows your counsel to make the reasonable submission to me that part of the drugs were for your own consumption. One of the advantages of pleading guilty, as you did, is that you have not spent your credibility telling lies to avoid conviction.

Accordingly, I will accept the submission that is made to me that the packet containing about 7 grammes of the ‘Ice’ was for your own consumption. You will know full well, because of your previous convictions, that sentencing in drug trafficking cases starts with looking at the weight of the drug in question and following guidelines.

Doing that in your case, I shall take a starting point by weight of 7½ years after trial. You earn a third discount for your plea of guilty, and I should give you a further discount for the element of self‑consumption.

The normal range is between 10 per cent and 25 per cent, but the top end of that range is taken up by cases where the whole of drugs were for self-consumption and the trafficking was due to, for instance, bringing it across a border.

I judge in your case the correct discount is one of 15 per cent. Accordingly, taking the 33 per cent discount for the plea, the 15 per cent discount for the self‑consumption, that gives a sentence of 4 years and 3 months and that is the sentence I pass upon you.

I am mindful that it would have been open for me to make some modest increase in the sentence because of your bad record, previous convictions especially for those in relation to drugs. But as you will appreciate, I have not done that, and part of the reason is that you are an obvious victim of drug trade yourself, and you know perfectly well that drugs have ruined your life.

Overall I judge 4 years and 3 months to meet the justice of your case.