HKSAR v. Tsang Ka Leung

HCCC 264/2018

[2019] HKCFI 1139

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 264 OF 2018

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

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COURT:

Defendant, on 20 August 2018, you pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug before a magistrate at East Kowloon Magistracy. As a result of your plea of guilty, you were committed to the Court of First Instance for sentence.

Defendant, you admitted that on 20 August 2017 at On Yam Estate Bus Terminal, On Chuk Street, Kwai Chung, New Territories, you unlawfully trafficked in 17,527 grammes of a mixture containing 13,864 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.

On 20 August at about 8.15 am, police officers saw you sitting in the driver’s seat of a private vehicle registration number UN3519, parked at the lay-by at On Yam Estate Bus Terminus. Police officers intercepted you for an investigation and search. Inside a shoulder bag you were carrying was found 2 packets of drugs which contained a mixture of 700 grammes containing 560 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. Inside the boot of the car, 4 cardboard boxes were found. In those cardboard boxes, the remainder of the drugs were found, that is 16,827 grammes of a mixture containing 13,304 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. They were contained in 48 packets.

One of the cardboard boxes was opened whilst the others were sealed. All the cardboard boxes contained small bottles of Tiger balm which were on top of the packets of heroin. The packets of drug found in your shoulder and those stored in the boot of the vehicle were wrapped in similar green adhesive tape wrappings.

The total estimated value of the drugs was $11,129,645.

You were arrested and cautioned under which you confessed you were helping a friend take the 4 cardboard boxes to On Yam Estate and his friend would give you some money afterwards. A DNA examination revealed that your DNA was found on the outside of the plastic wrapping of the drugs in your shoulder bag and one of the plastic packets of heroin seized from the boot of the vehicle.

Defendant, you are 39 years of age. You are born in Hong Kong. You have obtained Form 1 education in Hong Kong. At the time of the offence, you were unemployed. I am informed that you are addicted to heroin and you suffer from asthma. You are married with your wife in China and live with your mother in Tsuen Wan.

Defendant, you have 11 previous convictions, four of which are of possession of dangerous drugs. You have two similar to trafficking in dangerous drugs which were committed at the same time in 2002. In 2002, you were sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment for those offences. Your last discharge from prison was on 13 June 2012.

Mr Caesar Lo, your counsel, has explained to this court that you committed this offence due to sad circumstance of your family to which you needed money to repay a debt. Your two brothers, that is your elder and younger brother, had committed suicide within about two months of each other, your elder brother in May 2017 and your younger brother in July 2017.

As result of their deaths, you handled their funeral affairs and became heavily in debt to the amount of some hundred thousand dollars. So as to repay the debts of the funeral expenses and to earn quick money, you committed this offence.

You met a person called Ah Ming at a bar and he offered you $30,000 to carry the drugs for him. Your mother is 73 years of age and it is a very sad state of affairs for her in not only losing her two sons but you, committing this offence, which you know you will face a long term of imprisonment.

This offence was committed approximately one month after your youngest brother committed suicide. Both of your brothers suffered from depression and Mr Lo tells me that you also suffer from depression but went to seek medical treatment at the West Kowloon Psychiatric Centre. I accept that these are extraordinary and very sad and unfortunate events that happened in your life. However, my hands are tied in that these are not mitigating factors such that enable me to reduce your term of imprisonment.

Your strongest plea in mitigation is your early plea of guilty at the very first opportunity.

Defendant, the guideline case for trafficking in this very large amount of heroin hydrochloride is that of Abdallah. For amounts between 4,000 and 15,000 grammes, had you been convicted after trial, the sentence would be one of between 26 and 30 years’ imprisonment. You were trafficking in 13,864 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. Had you been convicted after trial, I would have taken a starting point of 29 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.

Giving you a full one-third discount for your plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity, you shall be sentenced to 19 years and 8 months’ imprisonment.

Defendant, although you have two previous convictions of a similar nature, and that may be considered as an aggravating factor to enhance the starting point, I have not done so as the offences of trafficking were committed a long time ago, some 20 years ago.