HKSAR v. Cheung Chun Ting

HCCC 228/2021

[2023] HKCFI 1780

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 228 OF 2021

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

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COURT: Defendant, you pleaded guilty before me today to an amended indictment filed on 31 May. You admitted that on 25 March 2020, at Room D, 5th Floor, Nos 218-220 Lai Chi Kok Road, Sham Shui Po in Kowloon, Hong Kong, you unlawfully trafficked in 994 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 636 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride. You also admitted the amended Summary of Facts dated 14 June 2023. The facts in support of this offence are as follows.

At about 9.55 pm, on 25 March 2020, whilst police were conducting an anti-drug operation, they spotted you coming out from Room D on the fifth floor of 218-220 Lai Chi Kok Road, Sham Shui Po. You then entered the lift. At the ground floor of the building, you were intercepted by the police. Upon search, a key was found in your left trousers’ pocket together with $1,100 and two mobile phones.

The police escorted you back to Room D and used the key found upon you to open Room D to conduct a house search. Upon search of the room, the following items were found and seized: the drugs as quantified in the charge was contained in four plastic bags, one large electronic scale, one heat sealer machine and one blue and white tape dispenser were all found on the TV cabinet in the living room.

Inside the drawer of the TV cabinet, a small electronic scale, another heat sealer machine, two boxes of double lock bag, and a large number of small transparent resealable plastic bags were found there.

On the sofa in the living room, electricity bills of the room and water bills of the room under your name was found.

You were arrested and cautioned. And under caution, you stated it was the first time you delivered dangerous drugs, ‘Ice’, for “Ah Hung” for a reward of $5,000. The street value of the drug seized in the present case is $625,226.

At the time of commission of this offence, defendant, you were 22 years of age. You are now 26 years old and are single. You have been educated up to Form 3 and you have parents, who are here in court today, both aged 45, and an older brother who is 29.

You have one previous similar conviction for conspiracy to traffic in dangerous drugs to which you were sentenced to a training centre in 2015. You were released in 2016.

Mr Victor Lee has submitted his written mitigation on your behalf and has also further mitigated orally. Mr Lee understands that there is a tariff for this offence, but he asks this court to impose the lowest possible sentence. He has informed this court that your parents are very supportive of you and you have learned a very big lesson in your life committing this offence.

Clearly, your strongest mitigating factor is your plea of guilty. Mr Lee has submitted that you were not a highly educated person and were used by the drug trafficker to deliver drugs.

I received letters in mitigation from both yourself, defendant, and your father. No doubt your father is very sad and sorry to see that you have committed this very serious offence, and feels guilty for not teaching you well and not guiding you properly in life. You have full support from your parents. They say you are a very caring and good-tempered person and are very saddened by your commission of this offence.

In respect of you, defendant, your letter sets out that you are very remorseful for committing this offence and sad to be letting down your parents again. You say you made a mistake and went astray, which made your family worried, sad and disappointed. You hope that when you finish what you know will be a long sentence, you will fulfil your responsibilities of a son to your parents. You all hope for the most lenient sentence this court can impose.

Defendant, as you rightly say, the strongest mitigating factor in this case is your plea of guilty. In regards to your plea of guilty, today, in fact, is the first day of trial to which you pleaded guilty. Your guilty plea, however, is to an amended charge. The amendment to the charge is that the prosecution amended and withdrew 737 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 3.45 grammes of methamphetamine, leaving the 994 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 636 grammes of methamphetamine.

Mr Victor Lee and Ms Human Lam, the senior prosecutor, have agreed the chronology of how you ended up pleading guilty before me today. Clearly, this plea of guilty was after the date set for trial and only very shortly before the trial date was fixed. I am informed that Mr Victor Lee was only assigned as defence counsel for this case on 11 April 2023, some two months ago. Ms Lam has informed me that when Mr Lee took over this case on 25 May 2023, Mr Lee and the prosecution started negotiations regarding the charge. Eventually, as I have mentioned, the charge was amended and the prosecution accepted the defence’s plea offer to plead guilty to a total of 636 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride on 31 May 2023. That was 23 days before today.

Mr Lee, in his mitigation, has asked this court to impose a full one-third discount, though not strongly, but urges this court to impose a 25 percent discount in view of the fact that the defendant has pleaded guilty to the amended charge at the first opportunity.

In this case, I accept that it was not until Mr Lee became involved as the legal representative of the defendant did negotiations start with the prosecution, which eventually led to the prosecution amending his charge and the defendant pleading guilty and to the amended indictment. On that basis, I am prepared to grant the defendant a 25 percent discount.

Defendant, you were trafficking in 636 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride, otherwise commonly known as ‘Ice’. The relevant guideline case for trafficking in ‘Ice’ is that of HKSAR v Tam Yi Chun [2014] 3 HKLRD 691. However, for amounts of over 600 grammes of ‘Ice’, the same tariff is applied as in Abdallah, that is, [2009] 2 HKLRD 437. For trafficking in amounts between 600 and 1,200 grammes of ‘Ice’, that would attract a sentence of between 20 and 23 years’ imprisonment.

In this case, defendant, as is clearly admitted by you in the Summary of Facts, you were a courier in this case to which you were assisting Ah Hung to deliver dangerous drugs for a reward. But you also rented these premises to which you stored the drugs together with all the other packaging materials such as the transparent plastic bags, the large electronic scales, the two electronic scales, and two heat sealing machines.

Despite you having one previous similar conviction, I will not consider that as an aggravating factor in this case as it was committed some five years previous to your commission of this present offence.

As noted by yourself and Mr Lee, your strongest and only mitigating factor is your plea of guilty. For that, you shall be awarded 25 percent.

Defendant, for 636 grammes of ‘Ice’, had you been convicted after trial, the appropriate sentence would be one of 20 years’ imprisonment.

Giving you the 25 percent discount, you should be sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.