HKSAR v. Lee Pak Yin

HCCC 194/2019

[2019] HKCFI 2528

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 194 OF 2019

-----------------

-----------------

---------------------------------

Transcript of the Audio Recording

of the Sentence in the above Case

---------------------------------

COURT:

Mr Lee, you pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134 before the Eastern Magistrates’ Court on 10 June 2019 and you have confirmed that plea today. The Summary of Facts which formed the basis of that plea was read out to you and you have confirmed them. As such, you are formally convicted before this court on your plea.

You were stopped on the evening of 20 June 2018 and when searched, the drugs that are the subject of Count 1, were found within your bag and were subdivided for onward sale. This was a commercial enterprise. You were clearly about to supply to the end user. You were in the company of your girlfriend at the time who had only just given birth to your daughter. You admitted the drugs belonged to you when you were arrested and cautioned. A search of your home address recovered further drugs which are the subject of Count 2. Even though some of the items recovered were taken from a drawer locked with a key in the possession of Ms Yim, you took full blame for the ownership of those drugs and as a result, Ms Yim was released uncharged.

Under both counts, the amount of cocaine recovered was identical. The police also recovered a machine to vacuum seal plastic bags, more empty bags and an electronic scale as well as equipment to consume cocaine.

The value of the drugs recovered that day amounted to $89,438. That is a very large sum of money for someone who left school after Form 2 and who has had humble employment.

$30,668.40 in cash was recovered from various small bags and plastic bags, also obviously a part of your drug business. You were given the opportunity to prove otherwise on a balance of probabilities but you declined my offer to give evidence without risk of repercussion. I do not accept the bare assertion provided by Ms Ma to the court upon your instructions that these were savings.

You are 31 years of age with a girlfriend and a daughter. I am not sure of your domestic arrangements at the time of your arrest as Ms Yim was clearly with you but the baby was elsewhere and your antecedents suggest that you were living with your mother, yet Ms Ma and the facts, suggest that you lived elsewhere. You say you were employed as a kitchen helper prior to your arrest, earning approximately fifteen to eighteen thousand dollars a month. From that, you suggested that you helped your mother by giving her $5,000 a month and paid for your own accommodation plus you would have had living expenses. Despite that, through Ms Ma, you suggested you saved some $30,000-odd towards a wedding banquet which you had kept in cash and which you had on you that night in order to pay for the wedding banquet that evening.

It appears from the evidence that you were in the business of supplying drugs. In 2009, you were convicted of two offences of trafficking in dangerous drugs and received a total sentence of imprisonment of 50 months. That sentence of imprisonment did not deter you. I have also been told that your brother is currently serving a life sentence for drug trafficking on the mainland. His sentence did not deter you either.

Ms Ma on your behalf tells the court that you fell in with a bad crowd in 2009 and that is why you started taking drugs and why you trafficked in ketamine for which you were sentenced that year. You have been out of trouble since your release from prison save for a minor unrelated matter, but after meeting Ms Yim and her falling pregnant, you wanted to get married and have a wedding banquet. It was to pay for that wedding banquet, you say, that you started supplying drugs. Ms Ma says that you were to receive $10,000 for the dangerous drugs that you were supplying that evening but that the $30,000-odd in cash were in fact from savings from your work and not drug dealing. As I have said, I do not believe that.

The sentencing guidelines for trafficking in cocaine can be found in HKSAR v Lau Tak Ming [1990] HKLR 370. For trafficking in between 0 to 50 grammes, the range of sentencing after trial is between 5 to 8 years. For 43.4 grammes therefore the starting point after trial would be approximately 7 years and 6 months’ imprisonment on each count. If you had been charged with the total amount of 86.8 grammes in one count, the starting point for sentence would have been 9 years.

In this instance, I accept that this was really one piece of offending. You will of course receive one-third discount for your plea at the earliest opportunity but there is no other mitigation which can affect the sentence which this court must pass.

You will go to prison on Count 1 for 5 years. You will go to prison on Count 2 for 5 years, 1 year of which will run consecutively to Count 1, and you will therefore go to prison for a total of 6 years.