HKSAR v. Chan Chun Man Stanley

HCCC 50/2018

[2018] HKCFI 1363

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 50 OF 2018

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Transcript of the Audio Recording

of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT:

Mr Chan, you have pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to sections 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134, in that you trafficked in 161.2 grammes of methamphetamine, and stand formally convicted of that charge. You accepted that the drug in question was ‘Ice’.

The Summary of Facts had been read out to you in court on the last occasion, and you have accepted them. In summary, you were arrested on 8 April of last year outside of the Tsim Sha Tsui Post Office, and found to be carrying four crystal ball lights, which had the methamphetamine hidden inside of them. At the time of your arrest, you said it was ‘Ice’, which you were sending overseas to someone. You had agreed to traffic in drugs for a reward of $2,300. That $2,300 had been part of $5,000, which had been deposited into your bank account; $2,700 of which had been used to pay for a room in the Regal Hotel, which you had used to package up the drugs for onward posting.

It sounds like quite a sophisticated arrangement. You were in fact carrying a solid weighing 1,973 grammes, which you packed and so you would have thought that you were posting a considerable quantity of drugs, rather than the 161.2 grammes which it actually was.

The purity was only 8 per cent, but the street value of those drugs at the time was $564,278, half a million, and that was not all you had received that day because you had admitted in interview that part of the drugs which you had received had already been passed on to two other people before you divided the remainder into four in order to fill the lights.

You are just 21 years of age, single, and lived previously with your father, mother and grandmother. I note that you did hold down a job with Apex for a year after you finished your schooling, but left that and had been doing part-time work. When you gave evidence, you said you were a waiter on contract earning approximately $13,000 per month, although I note that this job, and therefore the income, had only just started when you were arrested. You say you were working six days a week. You also say that this offending occurred because you were in financial difficulty.

You say you had been gambling on soccer and had run up debts of $20,000 to 30,000, you couldn’t remember exactly how much, which you needed to pay off. You told the court that the gambling first started when you were at Apex and when you were much younger. It continued and the debts increased. You couldn’t keep up with them. You obviously told your parents at some point because in February of 2017 your father paid off a $21,000 debt to a financial company on your behalf. It is not to your credit that you went on to incur more debt. You obviously had not learned your lesson because you borrowed almost $30,000 from friends which your father also repaid, and you had smaller loans with two other financial companies.

Since your arrest, your father has paid off that debt as well. You are very lucky because you were never going to be in a position to pay off that type of debt yourself, although I have to say, I have very little sympathy for those who lent you the money in the first place. What is anyone doing lending $20,000-odd to a 20 year old waiter? They did not help you by doing so, just as someone else took advantage of your naivety and greed by offering you the job of trafficking in drugs. You have a serious problem with financial management and self-discipline, which you should try and address with counselling whilst you are in prison.

I have read the very many letters submitted which show a different person than the one who decided to commit this crime. The relevant sentencing guidelines, as Mr Chiu has said, for the offence of trafficking in ‘Ice’ is in HKSAR v Tam Yi Chun [2014] 3 HKLRD 691. For trafficking in between 70 and 300 grammes of ‘Ice’, the sentencing range is between 11 and 15 years. For trafficking in 161.2 grammes of ‘Ice’, the starting point after trial is therefore 12 years and 6 months. Mr Chan, I think you already know that trafficking in dangerous drugs is a very serious offence. You did have a clear record; you did have a problem with gambling which needed to be addressed and because of your youth and your stupidity, you thought that you could solve your problems with crime.

You are very lucky that the purity of these drugs was not greater. If it had been, you would have thrown away a substantial part of your adult life. I am prepared to reduce the starting point by 6 months because I am satisfied that at a young age you acquired a gambling habit which you could not control and you did not have the life skills to deal with the increasing debt, but I cannot reduce it further than that. You will of course receive a one-third discount for your plea of guilty at the very first opportunity and so the sentence that I must pass upon you is therefore one of 8 years.