COURT: You pleaded guilty today -- well, it was not today, was it now, it was on the last occasion, to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs contrary to sections 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134 and that you have now accepted that you unlawfully trafficked in 3,588 grammes of ketamine on 24 January 2019. The Summary of Facts which forms the basis for that plea has been read and has been agreed by you.
On 22 January 2019, you flew from Hong Kong to Bangkok and remained for just two days returning on 24 January. You had taken no check-in luggage with you on your outbound flight but returned with a suitcase which was securely locked. When you were stopped and asked to open that suitcase, you claimed you did not know how. Customs and Excise found a number of items of clothing within the suitcase, some of which was clearly female clothing and also 17 professionally sealed packets of dried sliced mango and coconut chips within which contained ketamine. I suspect you were simply handed a suitcase packed by someone else and were going to hand that suitcase over when you came into Hong Kong.
The court has very little other background information about this offending from the papers because as is your right, you chose to exercise your right to silence.
You are now 30 years old and a Filipino national although you were born in Hong Kong and you are a Hong Kong ID card holder. I see from the papers that you were a bartender or a waiter at the time of your offending. Mr Davies has told the court that you attained Form 5 education and that when you left Christian Zheng Sheng College at 18 years of age in 2009, you gained employment in the food and beverage industry and having been employed ever since.
He tells the court that this offending is entirely out of character save for two minor matters when you were very young. I am told that although you were born in Hong Kong to Filipino parents, they divorced when you were just three years of age and abandoned you to your grandmother to raise but that the family you found yourself thrust into were not supportive and you suffered abuse. As a result, you ran away from home at just nine years of age and then fell under the supervision of the Social Welfare Department. That rocky start and your teenage offending set you on a path which many would not have been able to recover from but Mr Davies tells me that you did recover and that you have been a hard worker since you left the school.
Others encouraged you to take part in this offence. People who had no care for your welfare and who would have profited from your risk-taking but you are now an adult and you have taken full responsibility for what you chose to do.
The value of the ketamine in 2019 in which you trafficked would have been $2,057,290 which is a significant amount of money for someone. No doubt, you would have received a reward had you been successful.
The case of HKSAR v Hii Siew Cheng [2009] 1 HKLRD 1 provides sentencing guidelines for trafficking in ketamine up to one kilogramme at which point sentencing is at the discretion of the court. I bear in mind that this authority suggests that the starting point for trafficking in up to one kilogramme of ketamine after trial is 14 years. You have admitted to trafficking in three and a half times that quantity.
In HKSAR v Sin Chung Kin [2013] 1 HKLRD 627, it was suggested that the starting point for trafficking in 2,000 to 3,000 grammes should be no less than 18 to 20 years respectively. Where more than 3,000 is involved, the starting point after trial could exceed 20 years.
But the increase in sentence does not necessarily have to equate the increase in quantity on the same mathematical basis as before. It is for the court to pass a sentence which is appropriate in all the circumstances of the case as was said in HKSAR v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR 370 and Attorney General v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125.
You clearly went to Bangkok in order to collect the drugs which you have found to have been trafficking. You lent yourself to this enterprise willingly and knowingly. You are at best a courier. For 3,588 grammes, I consider a starting point after trial to be 20 years and 6 months. There is also the aggravating feature of international importation. You are not a foreign national who has no concept of the harm he or she seeks to cause to Hong Kong by importing drugs, you were born here and worked here. You were encouraged by others to import a truly harmful substance into this jurisdiction. The appropriate enhancement in all the circumstances of this case is therefore 2 years. That makes a total of 22 years and 6 months before the court can deduct any discount for your plea.
Unfortunately, this matter was committed for trial in the High Court on 31 July 2020. The first case management hearing was held on 27 July 2021 almost a year later. It was only at the second case management hearing on 3 September 2021, just three weeks before trial, that the court was informed of your intention to plead guilty. That late plea has very little utilitarian value.
However, Mr Davies has explained the difficulties he encountered in being able to take instructions and I understand that you have had little opportunity in your life to place faith in those in authority, whether that be your family elders or members of government institutions. From what he has told me that may be the cause of your failure to enter a timely plea and no good will come from this court punishing you again for the failure of others to provide you with the proper care when you were young and an adolescent.
In accordance with HKSAR v Ngo Van Nam, CACC 418/2014, a plea tendered after the first CMH and at the last minute, even though not on the actual day of trial as it is in this case, should attract a discount for plea of 20 per cent only.
However, a sentencing court always has a discretion, dependent on the special circumstances of any given case. In this case, I am, exceptionally, prepared to give you a 25 per cent discount. This is still a very long sentence to mark the seriousness of what you have done.
You will go to prison for 16 years and 10 months.