COURT: The defendant, Nguyen Hing-ning, faces two counts of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134. He pleaded guilty to both counts before a Magistrate and was committed to the Court of First Instance of the High Court for sentence.
The facts admitted by the defendant
The facts of this case are fairly straightforward. This is the typical stop and search case. The defendant was carrying two white plastic bags and a brown paper bag when he was intercepted by the police outside Crystal Park, that is a building, at No. 50 Ma Tin Road, Yuen Long.
Upon search, the C&E officers found a solid block wrapped with silver plastic tape, containing 1,000 grammes of a solid containing 951 grammes of cocaine hydrochloride inside a brown paper bag.
The defendant was arrested and cautioned and under caution the defendant stated that he had no knowledge of the dangerous drug inside the brown paper bag.
So the C&E officers later brought the defendant to Flat 29E of the building for investigation. Upon finding a bundle of keys in the defendant’s pants pockets, the defendant said that those keys found in his pockets belonged to this Flat 29E and that was premises he had rented. So the C&E officers then searched the place and found on the floor of the bedroom, there is an electronic scale, there is a beaker containing 4.11 grammes of a powder containing 3.48 grammes of cocaine hydrochloride, there was a plastic box containing a spoon containing 0.25 grammes of a powder containing 0.2 grammes of cocaine hydrochloride and a plastic box containing 0.23 grammes of a powder containing 0.19 of cocaine hydrochloride.
Then on the windowsill of the bedroom, there were two electronic scales, nine plastic bags containing 167 grammes of a solid containing 145 grammes of cocaine and two plastic bags containing 6.59 grammes of a solid containing 5.67 grammes of cocaine. And the officers also found cash of HK$5,400, US$200, AU$100 and Vietnamese Dong 20,000.
The defendant was arrested and cautioned again and he said he had no knowledge of the drug and the items found inside the flat. The officers found electricity bill, gas bills and a tenancy agreement all showing the defendant to be named as the tenant. And when the defendant was interviewed later, he still remained silent.
And the street value of all the dangerous drugs were estimated around $1,238,000.
And before the Magistrate, the defendant admitted he was unlawfully trafficking the dangerous drug in question at the material time, both in the street and those inside these premises.
The defendant’s background and mitigation
Defendant was born in Hong Kong in December 1993 so he is now 28 years of age and he is not a first offender, having a conviction of trafficking in a dangerous drug and was sentenced to imprisonment for 16 months on 9 December 2010.
In mitigation, Mr Paul Leung informed this Court that the defendant used to work as a construction worker earning $30,000 per month. However, work became slow and he found it hard to make ends meet. He had a girlfriend at the time and he was dreaming of having a lavish wedding ceremony and honeymoon trip which would have cost around $200,000 and he was doing various odd jobs to raise the money and then he met with someone called ‘Ah Sing’, and this Ah Sing -- he knew this Ah Sing before. And Ah Sing suggested the defendant to help store dangerous drug in his home and to make delivery for a reward of $16,000 per kilogramme of dangerous drug and the defendant agreed and Ah Sing then stored the dangerous drug at his home for a few months prior to the defendant’s arrest.
Since the arrest, his girlfriend had left him and Ah Sing had gone underground, undetected, do not know where he is now. And this Ah Sing had not made any payment to the defendant and now he is left to face the consequence.
The defendant regretted very much his misdeed and he was grateful that his mother still cares for him and visits him regularly. He had no other sibling.
Now, in the written submission, Mr Leung submitted that the defendant was aware of the sentencing guidelines and he nevertheless submitted that the defendant had provided credible and helpful assistance to the authorities and asked for a further discount on top of the discount for plea, citing cases such as Kilima Abbas and Lo Sze Tung Stephanie.
Consideration of the sentence
Trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. On conviction on indictment, a person is liable to a fine of $5 million and imprisonment for life.
The defendant was convicted of two counts of trafficking in a dangerous drug. In the circumstances of the present case, both offences were committed on the same day and the facts were closely linked. So the proper approach is to have regard to the total amount of dangerous drugs in Count 1 and Count 2 to arrive at an overall starting point.
The total quantity involved here is 1,105.54 grammes, so just over 1 kilogramme or 1.1 kilogrammes. According to the guidelines in the case of Abdallah, trafficking between 600 to 1,200 grammes, the appropriate starting point is between 20 to 23 years.
In mitigation, it was submitted that the defendant agreed to allow Ah Sing to store the dangerous drug at his home and to make deliveries. However, judging from the way the dangerous drug and the items were found inside his home, I am of the view that the defendant did not simply allow Ah Sing to store dangerous drugs at his home. It is clear from the evidence that the defendant was involved in packaging the dangerous drug as well. So his role was more than that of a courier or storekeeper.
Furthermore, the defendant already had a similar conviction of trafficking in a dangerous drug and was sent to gaol and he did not learn from his lesson and committed the same offence again.
Now, after considering all the circumstances of this case, I am of the view that a starting point of 22 years and 6 months’ imprisonment appropriate and I will enhance this starting point by 3 months in view of his previous conviction of the same. So the total starting point is 22 years 9 months, which is equivalent to 273 months.
(Discussion re calculation)
The defendant pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and is entitled to the full one-third discount. With the discount, with the one-third discount, the sentence would be 15 years and 2 months, that is 182 months.
Now, I have to consider if the defendant is entitled to any further discount for assistance he claimed to have provided to the authorities. According to a letter from the prosecution dated 12 July this year, that is yesterday, the information provided by the defendant did not result in any arrest or prosecution and that being the case, the information provided cannot be said to be of practical use. So I will not give the defendant any further discount on top of the discount for plea.
So for the sentence of trafficking in a dangerous drug, for the two offences, I will give the same sentence for ease of reference. So for both offences, the defendant is sentenced to 15 years and 2 months’ imprisonment.