COURT: Ng Wing-lung, you pleaded guilty on 11 March 2016, before the Eastern Magistracy, to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to sections 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134. The facts of your offending have been reduced to a Summary of Facts which had been read out in court and to which you have agreed.
On 8 April 2015, you were seen coming out of Shek Wing House, holding what appeared to be an empty brown paper bag whilst on your mobile phone. A taxi drew up next to you and you handed the bag to the driver who placed a plastic bag within it and returned it to you. When approached by the police, you ran away, attempting to discard the paper bag, but you were stopped and the bag was retrieved. On arrest, you said the ketamine was for you. That was not true.
A search of your home address revealed sets of electronic scales and resealable plastic bags, something you would not need for self-consumption. You then said that the bags were used for onward sale of the drugs. But in interview, you said you were to sell the whole amount in one go to someone else for $13,500 and would then pay your supplier $12,000, making a $1,500 profit and using a small amount for yourself.
The street value of the ketamine recovered from you was approximately $29,640.
You are now 23 years of age, having committed this offence when you were just 21, and at the time of your offending, you lived with your parents and siblings. They are not here today. But you have told the court that they have continued to be supportive and you value that support. You have been in custody since 8 April 2015.
Although still young, you have a criminal record dating back to 2008, when you were just 14 years of age. That was for possession of dangerous drugs and you were put on probation but you breached that order and went to rehabilitation centre instead. You did not learn any lesson from that because, in 2010, when you were 17, you were convicted of possession of dangerous drugs once again and received DATC.
In 2013, you received further DATC for yet another offence of possession and, after release, were recalled for further DATC before being released in January 2015, just a few months before this offending. At that time, you clearly had no regard whatsoever for the law or the harm you do to yourself, your family or the community by taking and trafficking in drugs.
But Miss Tsang has persuaded me that the short, sharp shock of prison at a tender age has helped you understand that your future will include ever increasing prison sentences unless you change your ways, stop taking drugs and disassociate yourself from those who traffic in them for a living.
It is to your credit that you have given assistance to the authorities. You have given evidence against an older man who, no doubt, will bear a grudge against you for so doing and will have connections to take revenge if he wished. The prosecution do not gainsay that you should get full credit for that and that your assistance was important to the successful prosecution of that offender.
I have listened to everything that Miss Tsang has said on your behalf, including your desire to assist the police, and I must say that I approached this sentencing exercise very sceptical about your motivation, but I have been persuaded by Miss Tsang to see a different side of you. This has been the first time that you have been in prison and you are still very young and no doubt were immature at the time of this offending. You were brave in providing assistance and you sought to do even more, but to no avail. For that assistance, you will receive a discount from your sentence.
Miss Tsang asked the court to give a further discount on the basis that some part of the drugs represented would have been for your self-consumption. I have already indicated that I take the view that the small amount that you say you would have consumed would make very little difference to sentence in any event.
But I also note that DHCJ Keith was somewhat lenient in his sentencing of the taxi driver in this matter and if I adopt the same starting point as him in order to be fair to you, then you have had some significant advantage in any event, and it would have been more than I would have discounted for the very small amount that you say you consumed. Mr Ng, these are serious matters and it has been said by the Court of Appeal on many occasions that there is little personal mitigation which can reduce the sentence that the court must ordinarily pass. That is the case here.
For trafficking in ketamine, the sentencing guidelines after trial are set out in Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew Cheng [2009] 1 HKLRD 1. For between 50 and 300 grammes, the starting point after trial is 6 to 9 years. For trafficking, therefore, in 193 grammes of ketamine, the starting point after trial for you will be 7 years 6 months to put it on the same footing as the taxi driver from whom you received the drugs and who, like you, was a middleman.
I had been referred to HKSAR v Z [2010] 10 HKCFAR 183 and I will give you an appropriate discount. You have pleaded guilty at the first opportunity so I will give you a discount for that plea and for your assistance in giving evidence, plus your assistance in seeking to help further and the risk you took in doing so.
Mr Ng, you are still very young. Please make every effort to lead an honest life in future and to make your parents proud of you. You will go to prison for 3 years and 9 months.