HKSAR v. Tsang Cheung Lam

HCCC 328/2019

[2020] HKCFI 898

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 328 OF 2019

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

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COURT: Defendant has pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely 27.8 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 27.6 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.

The facts show that on 31 October 2018, at about 1.13 am in the early hours of the morning, the defendant was seen walking suspiciously and he was intercepted. The drugs were found hidden under the defendant’s clothes near his lower stomach area.

Under caution, he admitted having picked up the bag of dangerous drugs from a flowerbed in Shanghai Street for his own consumption. Also found on the defendant was about $6,000 cash and a mobile phone.

In a subsequent video-recorded interview, the defendant volunteered that he is a drug addict for over 10 years and that he consumes ‘Ice’. He claimed that he was just passing by when he saw the drugs wrapped in tissue paper, he saw the drugs in the vicinity where he was walking by and he then picked it up, thinking that it looked like dangerous drugs.

The estimated retail value of the seized ‘Ice’ is about $13,200.

I certainly do not accept that a drug trafficker would leave $13,000 worth of dangerous drugs by the roadside or anywhere without someone watching over it for anyone to just come along and pick it up.

Now, the defendant is aged 40 and has previous convictions but nothing similar in the way of trafficking in dangerous drugs. His last conviction was in 2008 for possession of dangerous drugs for which he was sent to a drug addiction treatment centre.

Mr Ho has said everything he could possibly say on behalf of the defendant in mitigation. The defendant was working as a cleaning company foreman in a housing estate, earning around $25,000. He is also a casual construction worker earning an average of $20,000 a month as he is a skilled technician licensed by the Hong Kong Institute of Construction.

Mr Ho has correctly pointed out that the Court of Appeal has laid down guidelines for trafficking in methamphetamine hydrochloride in the 2014 case of Tam Yi Chun, and for trafficking in between 10 to 70 grammes, the recommended starting-point sentence after trial is between 7 to 11 years’ imprisonment. In this case, I would adopt a starting point of 8 years’ imprisonment.

Taking into account the fact that the defendant had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, I will give him the full one-third discount. I will also take into account that the defendant, as Mr Ho submitted, would have taken a small part of that ‘Ice’ for his own consumption. So I will therefore reduce the starting point to 7½ years’ imprisonment, and as I said, giving the defendant a full one‑third discount from that, the sentence will be 5 years’ imprisonment.