HKSAR v. Lau Yiu Man

HCCC 279/2017

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 279 OF 2017

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

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COURT: Lau Yiu-man, stand up, please.

Lau Yiu-man, you must have been well aware of the risks you were taking when you agreed to handle this very large quantity of ketamine on behalf of another person. Ketamine is rightly regarded as an extremely harmful drug, and its abuse in Hong Kong is all too common.

Ms Joyce Wu, your counsel, has addressed me most eloquently this morning about your unhappy family background, and the fact that you committed this offence in order to earn money while you were unemployed. And in considering that, I have to take into account that there are thousands of people who are in the same position as yourself, who are in the same or similar unhappy circumstances, and yet they would never dream of engaging in drug trafficking to ease their financial situation.

Regrettably, I cannot treat you as a person of good character, because you already have a criminal record including one conviction of possession of dangerous drugs.

From what she has told me this morning, I know that Ms Wu had told you that there are clear guidelines set down for all judges as to how we should sentence those people who choose to traffic in ketamine, and she will have told you that we are expected to stick to those guidelines, unless there are very good reasons not to do so and in your case, there are no such very good reasons.

Your mitigation, and it is the most powerful mitigation there is, is that you have the good sense to admit your guilt at the earliest possible stage of the criminal trial proceedings, that is, before a magistrate at Eastern Court. That indicates an acceptance on your part of your wrongdoing, and it indicates remorse on your part, and you will receive full recognition of that for your early plea of guilty in your sentence.

I have a number of letters before me, which I have read, and I am pleased to see from the letter from the prison chaplain, that you are responding well to pastoral counselling whilst in custody, and I am also pleased to see that your family and parents are going to stick by you whilst you are imprisoned and support you, and I was as equally pleased to see that your former schoolteachers speak well of you.

Following the guidelines which are set out for me to follow, and they are guidelines are based on the active narcotic contents in the drug trafficked, and in your case, that was 506 grammes of ketamine, just over half a kilo, in a mixture of a powder of 1 kilogramme. After trial, that means, had you taken this matter to trial, but been found guilty by the jury, I would have sentenced you to 11 years’ imprisonment. Because of your guilty plea, I am reducing that sentence by one-third, to a sentence of 7 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.

Lau Yiu-man, as I know you are aware, because Ms Wu has spoken of it, there are opportunities in prison for those sensible enough to take them, please make good use of the education opportunities that will be offered to you.