HKSAR v. Chan Wai Ping

HCCC 72/2018

[2018] HKCFI 1275

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 72 OF 2018

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Transcript of the Audio Recording

of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT:

Accused, I have taken into account everything that your counsel has urged on your behalf. You stand convicted of one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs. You have pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court and you have been committed to this court for sentence. The offence was committed on 7 August 2017 when you entered Hong Kong from China through the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Control Point. You were intercepted by the customs officers when you were passing through the Green Channel and the dangerous drugs in the charge were found inside your backpack.

The quantity of drugs involved is 1,879 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 1,590 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.

The retail value of the drugs was estimated to be HK$768,511.

These drugs were imported into Hong Kong and therefore calls for enhancement. All things considered, I adopt a starting point of 23 years and 4 months’ imprisonment, enhance it by 2 years making a total of 25 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.

After your arrest, you have participated in a fruitless controlled delivery operation and subsequently you have also provided further assistance to the police.

Your counsel informed me that, despite the fact that you had stated in your antecedent statement that you were not a drug addict at the time of arrest, you were in fact an occasional methamphetamine hydrochloride user and that a minimum amount of drugs seized was to be for your own consumption. This was not accepted by the prosecution. In support of that contention, your counsel relied on the fact that after arrest, you were found to be amphetamine positive in your urine test. When it was pointed out to your counsel that it is an admitted fact that Man Chai in Shenzhen had asked you to deliver these drugs to Hong Kong for reward, your counsel did not press the matter further.

Having taken into account everything urged on your behalf, I give you a full one-third discount for your early plea of guilty at the Magistrates’ Court. For your cooperation with the police and your participation in the failed controlled delivery operation, I give you a further 4 per cent discount. In all the circumstances of this case, I do not accept that any of the drugs were for your own consumption. In the result, I give you an overall discount of 37.33 per cent, and rounding it off in your favour, thereby reducing the sentence from the starting point of 25 years and 4 months’ imprisonment to one of 15 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.

I therefore sentence you to 15 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.