HKSAR v. Fung Wing To

HCCC 477/2016

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 477 OF 2016

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

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COURT: Mr Fung, you pleaded guilty before the magistrate, on 25 November 2016, to just the one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134, in that you trafficked in 49.8 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride and you stand formally convicted of that charge.

You were intercepted outside of Tin Hor House on the Tin Ping Estate, in Sheung Shui, when you were found to have two transparent plastic bags of ‘Ice’ in your trouser pocket. At the time of the arrest and later in interview, you maintained that those drugs were all for your own self-consumption, but you now accept, Mr Fung, that that was not the case and that you say one of those packets was for your own consumption.

Mr Percy, on your behalf, has told the court that you are 26, single, living with your father in Fanling and you obtained secondary education up to Form 5. You have been employed, as I can see from the antecedents, in logistics and as a kitchen worker, but you were a warehouseman at the time of your arrest, earning between $7,000 and $8,000 per month.

You said you had purchased the drugs found upon you for $4,000 but that that was a discounted rate because you thought that they should have been $5,000 if you had bought less than 50 grammes.

The value on the street, though, according to the police, if you had sold those on, was $16,526. That is a big difference between what you say you paid and what the police believe could have been the value of those drugs if sold on.

Mr Fung, your first conviction for matters concerning dangerous drugs was on 30 December 2011, when you were just 21 years of age, and you received at that time a 15 months’ probation order, which you breached, and so in March of 2013, you were sentenced to drug addiction training centre. That had absolutely no effect on you, did it? Because in May of 2014, you were convicted once more of possession of drugs and you received a suspended sentence of 3 months, and yet, nine months later, for breach of that, you end up in DATC again.

The relevant sentencing guideline for the offence of trafficking in ‘Ice’ after June of 2014 is HKSAR v Tam Yi Chun [2014] 3 HKLRD 691. For trafficking in between 10 and 70 grammes of ‘Ice’, the sentencing range is 7 to 11 years and therefore, for trafficking 49.8 grammes of ‘Ice’, the starting point is 9 years and 9 months.

I will allow you a discount upon that starting point for the part of the drugs which I believe it is possible you would have consumed yourself, which means that the starting point after that discount would be 8 years and 9 months.

Under HKSAR v Abdul Makidu Abdulkarim [2016] 5 HKLRD, as you pleaded guilty at committal, you are entitled to a full one-third discount from the starting point after trial.

I have taken into consideration everything that Mr Percy has said on your behalf. Unfortunately, Mr Fung, there is very little else within the mitigation which can reduce your sentence further.

Mr Fung, I sentence you 5 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.