HKSAR v. Tam Ying Wah

HCCC 50/2017

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 50 OF 2017

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

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COURT: Defendant, on 13 February 2017, you pleaded guilty before a magistrate at the Eastern Magistracy to a count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.

You admitted that on 13 July 2016, at the rear lane, No 3D Maple Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon, you unlawfully trafficked in 319.7 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 311.9 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride. As a result of your plea of guilty, you were committed to the Court of First Instance for sentence.

The facts of the case can simply be put that at around 9.40 pm on 13 July 2016, police officers saw you coming out from a hotel at No 149 Lai Chi Kok Road. You were then intercepted by them and brought to the rear lane of No 3D Maple Street, near the hotel for a search. Upon a search of the cross-body shoulder bag you were carrying, three packets of the quantity of drugs involved as stated in the charge were found within a small black plastic bag.

You were arrested and, under caution, you said “Ah Sir, I have no money to spend, so I carried those dangerous drugs ‘Ice’ for someone. Give me a chance”. $9,131 of cash and two mobile phones were also seized from you.

The street value of the ‘Ice’ seized in July 2016 was about $114,772.

In your video-recorded interview on the following day after your arrest, you said that you were offered this job to deliver these drugs for a reward of $500. You picked up the drugs at about 8 pm the evening of your arrest and you were to deliver them to a male. However, before delivery, you were intercepted and arrested.

Your counsel, Mr Paulinus Lo, has mitigated fully and thoroughly on your behalf. He has correctly referred me to the guideline case for trafficking in quantities of ‘Ice’ which is the case of HKSAR v Tam Yi Chun [2014] 3 HKLRD 691.

You are 63 years of age. You have 12 previous convictions. One is related to dangerous drugs, which is for possession of dangerous drugs. That was committed in 1988 and you were fined $500. You had an addiction to heroin previously but you have since quit that addiction for over 10 years.

At the time of your arrest, you were employed as a delivery worker, earning about $8,000 a month.

Mr Lo has said the strongest mitigating factor is your early plea of guilty. He asks this court to give you the full one-third discount and to take the lowest starting point of the tariff laid down in Tam Yi Chun.

It is correct that you had entered an early plea of guilty and that was at the committal proceedings before the magistrate, as a result of which, you are deserving of the full one-third discount from the starting point.

The guideline starting point for trafficking in ‘Ice’, after trial, of amounts between 300 and 600 grammes, as laid down in Tam Yi Chun, is one of 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment. You were trafficking in 311.9 grammes of ‘Ice’. Had you been convicted after trial, I would have taken a starting point of 15 years’ imprisonment.

Giving you the full one-third discount for your early plea of guilty, that results in a term of 10 years’ imprisonment to which you shall be so sentenced.