Read the full judgment text of CACC 224/2019 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 11 August 2020 before Vice President of the Court of Appeal Yang Zhenquan, Justice of Appeal Yuan Jianing, Justice of Appeal Peng Weichang.
Criminal law – sentencing – possession of cocaine – trafficking in ketamine – total sentence – principle of proportionality – combined approach – appeal against sentence – partial concurrent sentences – The applicant was convicted of possession of 2.13g cocaine and trafficking of 324g ketamine. The trial judge set benchmarks of 12 months and 9 years 3 months, reduced by one-third for guilty plea to 8 months and 6 years 2 months, ordered fully consecutively for a total of 6 years 10 months. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the total sentence was excessive. Applying the combined approach, the court used ketamine as the base drug due to its larger quantity, with a starting point of 9 years 3 months, increased by 3 months for the cocaine, then reduced by one-third for the guilty plea to 6 years 4 months. The court ordered partial concurrent sentences: 2 months of the possession sentence to run consecutively with the trafficking sentence. Appeal allowed; total sentence reduced to 6 years 4 months.
Legal issues: Proportionality of total sentence for possession and trafficking of different drugs
Outcome: Appeal against sentence allowed; total sentence reduced from 6 years 10 months to 6 years 4 months.
Cited by 2 cases · Cites 4 cases