Background and the facts
The accused pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug before me this morning and admitted the summary of facts.
Briefly, in the afternoon of 5 January 2016, the accused was intercepted by the police in Shatin. Upon search, the police found from inside the paper bag carried by the accused, a plastic bag containing the drug particularised in the count, that is, a total of 243 grammes of a powder containing 130 grammes of ketamine. Under caution, the accused admitted delivering the drug to a customer for a reward. He reiterated the same when interviewed by way of video-recording subsequently.
The estimated street value of the drug was about HK$31,000.
Mitigation
The accused is 22 years of age, approaching 23, married with a 5-month-old daughter. His wife is a mainlander and she lives in the mainland. The accused has had four previous criminal convictions prior to the commission of the present offence, three of those were possession of a dangerous drug and one was common assault. He was sent to the DATC before and had also been given a probation order. The accused quit his school after completing Form 1 education. At the time of arrest, he was working as a construction worker, apparently earning about HK$800 a day.
In mitigation, Mr Khattak for the accused submitted that the accused is truly remorseful which is reflected by his ready admission of the offence upon arrest by the police and by his pleading guilty before me this morning. A lenient sentence was thus asked for.
The sentence
In SJ v Hii Siew Cheng and Another [2009] 1 HKLRD 1, the Court of Appeal laid down the tariffs for trafficking in ketamine. For trafficking 50 to 300 grammes of ketamine, a term of imprisonment of 6 to 9 years is called for.
Having considered the facts of this case and that a total of 130 grammes of ketamine was involved, I am of the view that a starting point of 7 years is appropriate.
The accused pleaded guilty. He would receive a one-third reduction in sentence. That reduction has already taken into account the remorse he showed. Other than this, there are no other matters which would further reduce the sentence: 7 years reduced by one-third is 4 years and 8 months’ imprisonment. This is the sentence to which I sentence the accused.