HKSAR v. Wong Kwok Kwan

DCCC 92/2018

[2018] HKDC 1431

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 92 OF 2018

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.The defendant has been convicted after trial on one offence of possession of dangerous drug. The drug itself is a mixture of 5.02 grammes of heroin and 6.82 grammes of methamphetamine.

2.The drugs were found upon the defendant in a stop and search operation.  The defendant at the time admitted the drugs were for his own consumption.  He gave some details of his daily consumption of the drug.  It would appear that the defendant consumes the two drugs in tandem for greater effect.

3.Having convicted the defendant of possession of dangerous drugs, I was obliged to obtain reports upon him.  A combination of that report and the defendant’s antecedents tell me that the defendant is currently aged 56, he came into Hong Kong in about 1980 and started to consume heroin since 1982 and increased that to add ‘Ice’ in 2012.  The defendant’s conviction record shows a number of convictions for offences involving vice, which presumably is a form of employment that’s able to subsidise his drug addiction.  He only has one conviction of possession of dangerous drugs for which he was previously sentenced to 2 months’ imprisonment.

4.The defendant has a wife who is in prison and a son who is at university and lives with him.  The defendant has been in custody for the past 12-odd months and is assessed to no longer be a drug dependent. He is not suitable for admission to a Drug Addiction Treatment Centre.

5.The sentence of the defendant, as he will not be suitable for Drug Addiction Treatment Centre, must, in the circumstances of this case, be one of imprisonment.  The range of normal sentencing for simple possession of a dangerous drug lies between a starting point of between 12 to 18 months’ imprisonment.  The defendant has what would be a substantial quantity for the purposes of possession and I would take a starting point for sentence on the quantity alone at 18 months’ imprisonment.  Because of the quantity of the drug the defendant was in possession of, I must also look at the issue of latent risk to see whether there should be an enhancement of the sentence for that aggravating factor.

6.The evidence did not show the defendant to be in possession of any impedimenta for the trafficking of the drug, and he does, on his own admission and also based on the report from the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre, does appear to consume quite a substantial quantity of the drug every day.  But there is a total of almost 12 grammes of these drugs in combination.  I consider there must be some risk, although towards the lower end of the spectrum.  I will therefore add a further 3 months’ imprisonment for that fact.

7.That will leave a sentence of 21 months’ imprisonment for this offence, and that will be the sentence of the court:  21 months.