COURT: The defendant had pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to trafficking in a dangerous drug, and the 1st charge, he had pleaded guilty to trafficking in 1 kilogramme of a powder containing 747 grammes of cocaine. In the 2nd charge, he pleaded guilty to 1,396.67 grammes of a powder and a solid containing 901.23 grammes of cocaine.
In the Summary of Facts which the defendant had admitted to, the defendant had signed a tenancy agreement on 10 May 2019 to rent a unit in Kwai Chung, New Territories, starting from 15 May.
On 16 June 2019, the defendant was spotted by customs officers in an anti-narcotics operation in the vicinity of the premises carrying a black bag, cross-shoulder bag and on his right shoulder was a purple recycle bag. In the purple recycle bag was found the drugs which is the subject matter of the 1st charge. The defendant was arrested. Under caution, he admitted that he was carrying the drugs for a reward.
He had keys to the premises and upon entry into the premises, the drugs which are the subject matter of the 2nd charge were found. There were also found two electronic
scales and new resealable plastic bags and some paper bags and plastic containers.
The estimated street value of the drugs that were found that day by the customs officers, subject matter of the two charges, was in the region of HK$3,103,687, and the defendant had been committed to this court for sentencing.
The defendant was 26 years old at the time of his arrest and is now 28 and has a clear record. Mr Yeung on his behalf has submitted in mitigation that the defendant lived with his parents, his family members and was a construction site worker since 2018. He got into debt because of his fun-seeking activities and owed the finance companies a large sum of money with his parents as guarantors. And it was this wish to repay his parents that he then succumbed to the temptation of making easy money by participating in this drug trafficking. And Mr Yeung submitted that the defendant, being a first offender, was acting out of character in committing this offence.
Now, the total number of drugs that were found when one adds up the two charges is 1,648.23 grammes. The Court of Appeal has laid down sentencing guidelines in the case of Abdallah [2009] 2 HKC 197 that for trafficking in between 1,200 grammes to 4,000 grammes, the starting-point sentence should be between 23 to 26 years. Now in view of all that I have said, I consider that an appropriate starting point in this case would be 23 years’ imprisonment.
I have also taken into account the case of HKSAR v Yeung Hoi Ting [2019] HKCA 31 where the Court of Appeal had suggested the principle in relation to assistance offered to the authorities. As Mr Yeung pointed out, the mitigating factor is whether the assistance was of practical use rather than tangible result, and the Court of Appeal there reduced the starting-point sentence by 37.5 per cent.
The facts in this case is slightly different to that of the case of Yeung Hoi Ting, and I have therefore considered that I can reduce it a bit more in the circumstances. So I will reduce the sentence from 23 years to 14 years.
All right. So the defendant will go to prison for 14 years.
(Discussion re exhibits)
COURT: I have just been reminded there are two charges. So therefore on the 1st count I will sentence the defendant to 14 years, and on Count 2, the defendant to 14 years, to run concurrently.