HKSAR v. Li Ho Yuen

HCCC 138/2019

[2019] HKCFI 2130

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 138 OF 2019

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

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COURT:

The defendant, who is 28 years old, was arrested as he left an address on the Ap Lei Chau Estate on 12th June 2018 and after he had been found in possession of a solid containing 720 grammes of cocaine, Charge 1.

The drugs were separately packaged in 35 resealable bags. He told the police how he had been promised $5,000 to place the drugs in a certain locker at a shopping centre.

The value of the cocaine was estimated to be $794,422 in its powder form.

The defendant was then taken back to the room he had left earlier for which he had the keys. There, the police found an electronic scale, a bundle of unused resealable bags, eight boxes of soda powder, and 3.46 grammes of cocaine, Charge 2, which the defendant said was for his own consumption.

The prosecution accept this and indeed Mr Cheng, who has made one of the best mitigation speeches I have heard in a case of this sort, has accepted on the defendant’s behalf his habit of using drugs, which he has had since the age of 15.

This is not the first time the defendant has been involved in trafficking dangerous drugs and so he will certainly have been well aware of the penalties in respect to an offence of this kind. He will have put his family through terrible times and by distributing the drugs, he was going to put other families in the same position and that is why the sentencing guidelines set out in HKSAR v Abdallah Anwar Abbas [2009] 2 HKC 197 provide guidelines which are substantial for people who trade in drugs.

Mr Cheng has very realistically accepted the fact that the defendant knows full well the consequences of a case like this and for amounts between 600 and 1,200 grammes of cocaine, the guidelines provide for a recommended sentence of between 20 and 23 years. It seems to me that the appropriate starting point in this case would be 20 years and 6 months. I do propose to enhance that very slightly although perhaps it should be more than I will enhance by but I shall enhance it by only 6 months, making 21 years in all as a starting point, which is the sentence the defendant would have received after trial if he had contested the case and been found guilty.

Unfortunately, the defendant’s sentence of 3 years and 8 months for trafficking previously appears to have been no deterrent at all.

The defendant has pleaded guilty and I accept, from what Mr Cheng has said, that he now feels very remorseful. I can give full credit for that plea and can only express the hope that after a lengthy period of imprisonment, this defendant can start again when he comes out free of the addiction of drugs.

Mr Li, would you stand please. Giving full credit for your plea of guilty, your sentence must be one of 14 years’ imprisonment, that is on Charge 1 and as far as Charge 2 is concerned, the sentence will be concurrent and it is 12 months reduced from 18 months, so the total is 14 years.