HKSAR v. Shek Wai Yee

HCCC139/2018

[2018] HKCFI 1885

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 139 OF 2018

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Transcript of the Audio Recording

of the Sentence in the above Case

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This is the sentence and the reasons for sentence. You indicated a plea of guilty earlier on before a magistrate. Today you confirm that indication and you also admitted to the facts and you have been convicted of one count in trafficking in a dangerous drug.

The facts are simple and straightforward. You were stopped and searched and drugs were found on you. You confessed that someone asked you to deliver the ‘Ice’ to a place and someone else for a reward of $400. The act of delivering the drugs for others amounted to trafficking. The drugs found on you were examined and found to be 27.6 grammes of a crystalline solid as well as 27.6 grammes of ‘Ice’. In other words it is of 100 per cent purity.

The estimated street value was $9,080.

You have nine previous convictions from as many court appearances. You were first convicted of theft in 1984 when you were 22. Your first drug related offence was for possession of dangerous drugs in June 1993 when you were sentenced to the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre (“DATC”). You were convicted of one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs in June 2007 when you were sentenced to treatment at the DATC by a District Court judge.

Given the time that has lapsed between that conviction and the present one, and given the nature of the sentence on that previous occasion, I will not enhance your sentence in the present case on the basis of this being your second similar conviction. Your last conviction was for theft when you were sentenced to 4 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 2 years.

I deal with the mitigation. You are 55, born in Hong Kong, educated up to Form 3 level. You said in your video-recorded interview you have no fixed abode and is unemployed. You have been a heroin abuser for about 30 years and would consume about 0.2 grammes every day. You became a widow when your husband passed away 10 years ago. That was also the time when you suffered an injury to your leg in a fire. It would appear you have been in pain ever since and it caused you to be unable to hold a proper job. You are now awaiting surgery and hope that it would make the pain go away. I heard in mitigation that your boyfriend had also passed away in July 2017. Since you had been living in public housing registered under his name, you were no longer able to stay there after the boyfriend had left, and that is why you have been living rough.

You and your parents and your three siblings have not contacted each other for more than 10 years. You promised to turn a new leaf after your release and will try to find work in the garment industry. You have been attending sewing classes in prison and you have also been seeking to clarify your mind through religion and you ask for leniency.

Sentencing guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal for trafficking in ‘Ice’ are found in the case of Tam Yi Chun. The sentencing range for trafficking between 10 and 70 grammes of ‘Ice’ is 7 to 11 years’ imprisonment. An arithmetical application of the tariff sentence to 27.6 grammes of ‘Ice’ will lead to a starting point of 98 months’ imprisonment. As I mentioned before, even though this is the defendant’s second conviction for trafficking in dangerous drugs I will not enhance her sentence for the reason already given.

The only mitigating factor is the defendant’s timely guilty plea. Although I do sympathise with your life story, from the legal point of view there are no other mitigating factors present that would allow me to depart from the guideline tariff sentence.

You are therefore sentenced to 65 months’ imprisonment after granting you the full one-third discount for your guilty plea.