COURT: Defendant, on 17 April 2023, you pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs at the Eastern Magistracy. On that date, you admitted that on 4 May 2022, at Pitt Street near the junction of Tung Fong Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, you unlawfully trafficked in 95.1 grammes of a solid containing 81.58 grammes of cocaine. As result of your plea of guilty, you have been committed here to the Court of First Instance for sentence.
The facts in support of the charge to which you admitted are as follows. On 4 May 2022, police had set up a roadblock in Pitt Street near the junction of Tung Fong Street, Yau Ma Tei. At about 2128 hours on the same day, the police officers stopped and directed a taxi carrying yourself and another female as passengers for a stop and search. You and the female were instructed to alight from the taxi for a search.
Upon search, found hidden around your waist underneath your pants were seven resealable plastic bags containing the dangerous drugs as quantified in the charge. Cash of $6,649 and a Samsung mobile phone with SIM cards were seized from your trousers’ pocket. You were arrested and under caution you said you had nothing to say. In a subsequent video-recorded interview in the presence of your lawyers, you remained silent.
The estimated market retail value of the drugs as quantified in the charge was $128,005.
Defendant, you are aged 32. You were born in Hong Kong, born on 6 January 1991. You have five previous convictions, one similar to trafficking in dangerous drugs in 2010 when you were about 19 years old. You were sentenced to the drug addiction treatment centre. A related conviction in 2008 for possession of dangerous drugs to which you were fined $1,000 when you about 17 years of age.
You have been educated up to Form 3 secondary level. I am informed by your counsel, Mr James Wong, that you were a minority shareholder in a bar. You were a bartender by trade of which you worked in that bar and earned about $20,000 per month. Mr Wong submits that in the present case, you pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity indicating your genuine remorse and saving the court’s time. He also submits that there is no evidence to suggest that you were anything but a mere courier of these dangerous drugs.
Defendant, you were trafficking in 81.58 grammes of cocaine. The case setting down the tariffs for trafficking in heroin and cocaine is that of R v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR 370. For trafficking in cocaine between 50 grammes and 200 grammes, the applicable band is one of 8 to 12 years’ imprisonment after trial. Given the quantity of drugs in this case of 81.58 grammes, the starting point had you been convicted after trial, I would have taken is one of 8 years and 9 months’ imprisonment. Defendant, I accept that you were a courier in this case and although I see that you have a previous similar conviction for trafficking, I shall not regard that as an aggravating factor because that offence occurred now some 12 years ago.
Your only and strongest mitigating factor is your plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity and to that you shall be awarded the full one-third discount. In the circumstances, your resulting sentence should be one of 5 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.