HKSAR v. Tse Hin Yeung

HCCC 291/2016

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 291 OF 2016

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

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COURT: Defendant, you have been found guilty after trial by a jury of the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to Section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.

You have been found to have unlawfully trafficked in 1.92 kilogrammes of a powder containing 1.46 kilogrammes of ketamine on 20 August 2013, at the ground floor of Number 61, Chik Shun Street, Tai Wai, New Territories.

On the day in question, you were seen by police officers to be carrying a black recycling bag containing the drugs as stated in the charge. The drugs were secretly hidden inside milk boxes, hidden and disguised inside a Carlsberg beer carton.

The drugs were packed in this way, obviously, so that no one would find or think that there were drugs in that Carlsberg beer carton box.

Perhaps not so ingeniously thought was that these were milk boxes contained in a beer carton box.

The drugs in this case was a very large amount of ketamine. As I am sure you have been advised by your counsel, Ms Yap, the Court of Appeal in Hong Kong have laid down guidelines for traffickers trafficking in certain quantities of drugs.

Trafficking is very serious and warrants very long terms of periods of imprisonment, particularly when large amounts of drugs are involved.

Ms Yap has properly referred me to the case of Hii Siew Cheng, where in that case, that is, [2009] 1 HKLRD 1, the Court of Appeal laid down guidelines for trafficking in ketamine of up to 1,000 grammes, was a term of imprisonment of 14 years and upwards.

In the case of Chow Yau Ching CACC 517/2012, the Court of Appeal there considered what the Court of Appeal said in Sin Chung Kin, where in Sin Chung Kin, the court made the observation that appropriate points for trafficking in 2,000 grammes was 18 years’ imprisonment. You were trafficking in 1.46 kilogrammes of ketamine. That falls about half way between 1,000 and 2,000 grammes, and the middle ground for that, to which you shall be sentenced to imprisonment, is a term of 16 years’ imprisonment. Your age is not a factor of which this term of imprisonment can be reduced. Despite your previous convictions, these have no relevance in sentencing at all.