COURT: Defendant, on 20 July 2023, you pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs before a magistrate sitting at the Eastern Magistracy. As result of your plea of guilty, you were committed here to the Court of First Instance for sentence. You admitted that on 25 January 2022, at Room 15060, Regal Riverside Hotel in Sha Tin, New Territories, you unlawfully trafficked in 25.43 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 25.19 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride and 0.33 grammes of a solid containing 0.27 grammes of cocaine.
On 25 January 2022, police officers laid ambush on the 15th floor at the Regal Riverside Hotel in Sha Tin. You and your girlfriend were intercepted on the corridor. Upon enquiries made by the police of you, you claimed to have stayed at Room 15060 on the same floor. The key card of that room was found on your girlfriend. Also in her possession was $27,000-odd in cash.
Upon entry into that hotel room, the safe was voluntarily unlocked by you and the following items were found inside the safe: Three plastic bags containing the ‘Ice’ as quantified in the charge; two plastic bags containing the cocaine quantified in the charge; an electric scale, 161 transparent resealable plastic bags, adhesive tapes, four drug inhaling devices containing plastic straws containing liquids containing traces of methamphetamine, and a lighter.
Upon arrest and under caution, for the offence of possession of dangerous drugs you claimed the ‘Ice’ was for your own consumption which your girlfriend had nothing to do with.
In a subsequent video-recorded interview, you claimed that you had been inhaling ‘Ice’ for three years and had consumed about 0.5 grammes per dose. You said that you had purchased the drugs from a friend at the cost of $6,000 and $200 respectively. You then claimed that you brought these dangerous drugs to the hotel room on 21 January 2022 and locked them in the safe and only you knew the password.
At the time of the offence, the average street value of the ‘Ice’ that was seized was in the value of $14,976 and the cocaine at $496.
In the Summary of Facts, you admit now and accept that at the material times, you knowingly possessed all the subject dangerous drugs in question for the purpose of unlawful trafficking. You also admitted that at the time of your arrest for this offence, you were wanted for failing to surrender to court for four cases as well as on police bail for another case.
Defendant, you are now 31 years of age and born in Hong Kong. You are single and resided with your parents and brother before your arrest. You have received secondary school education. You worked as a warehouse transportation worker earning about $27,000 at the time of your arrest. Mr Ernest Yuen, your counsel, has attached to your written mitigation a letter from your employer confirming your employment and your income per month.
Mr Yuen has said that you have a history of abusing dangerous drugs and it is your habit of abusing ‘Ice’. A urine test report has been submitted from the time you were remanded. The result shows that you have tested positive for amphetamine. Mr Yuen submits that a small portion of the ‘Ice’ was for your own consumption but not a significant portion. The reason for you committing this offence, I am informed, was with a view to earning some quick money.
You have 18 previous convictions, none of those convictions are related to drugs. You were last discharged from custody on 21 July 2018. Regarding the fact that you had committed this offence whilst on bail and had failed to surrender to court for four other certain cases, Ms Claudia Ko has informed me of the relevant cases. For the four court cases, three of them were traffic summonses and they have been dealt with and there is of course no criminal conviction for those. For the remaining court case, that charge was not proceeded with. So there remained only one case to which that you were on police bail and had jumped police bail.
From part B of the criminal record you had jumped police bail from 16 December 2019. You were arrested for this offence on 25 January 2022 and as a result you were found to have jumped police bail. So you had effectively jumped police bail for approximately 2 years.
For the police bail case, that case which was referred to is District Court Criminal Case 1004/2021 and 281/2022. For that District Court case, you were sentenced to 42 months’ imprisonment on 2 February 2023. Those offences involved three charges of burglary and a charge of using a motor vehicle without third party insurance, driving without a license, and driving an unlicensed vehicle.
Mr Yuen explains to the court that shortly after you were granted police bail for that case, you had gone to the mainland. However, shortly after going to the mainland, you committed an offence of possession of dangerous drugs and was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment. So for that reason, you were unable to return to Hong Kong and answer your police bail.
Shortly after you returned to Hong Kong, Mr Yuen explains you committed this offence. I have informed Mr Yuen that although of course you are unable to answer your police bail as a result of your incarceration in the mainland, you had returned to Hong Kong and had still nevertheless not answered your police bail.
In the circumstances, as Ms Ko has stated you had committed this offence whilst on bail for other offences. In the circumstances therefore, I do consider this to be an aggravating factor.
Regarding sentence for this offence of trafficking, you were trafficking in two types of drugs. The first type was ‘Ice’ in the quantity of 25.19 grammes and the other was cocaine in the quantity of 0.27 grammes. In sentencing you for these two types of drugs, defendant, I adopt the combined approach and conversion approach from that of cocaine to ‘Ice’ for the purposes of sentence.
The guideline cases for trafficking in ‘Ice’ is that of Tam Yi Chun, that is [2014] 3 HKLRD 691, and for the guideline case for trafficking in cocaine as set down in R v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR 370.
Regarding the role that you played in trafficking these drugs, you were obviously storing them in a hotel room with a view to later selling them to others. Although of course I accept you were a drug dependent and there were inhaling bottles in the hotel room, you were also found to be methamphetamine positive upon your remand in custody. As Mr Yuen has stated this is not a significant amount for your own consumption, I am therefore unable to give you any discount for self-consumption.
As stated in the well-known case of Wong Suet Hau, even where the defendant had drugs and supported their own consumption habit, there was a latent risk that those drugs will be used for trafficking.
Turning now to the sentence to be imposed. In following the guideline in Tam Yi Chun, the amount of ‘Ice’ falls within the bracket of 10 to 70 grammes of ‘Ice’ to which a sentence of 7 to 11 years’ imprisonment should be imposed after trial. For this quantity of ‘Ice’, I would have taken a starting point of 8 years’ imprisonment.
I consider, as I mentioned earlier, the fact that you committed this offence whilst on bail to be an aggravating factor and enhance that term to 8 years and 6 months’ imprisonment as a notional starting point.
Regarding the drug cocaine, you had been trafficking in 0.27 grammes. This falls within the bracket of up to 10 grammes of narcotics in Lau Tak Ming to which a sentence of 2 to 5 years’ imprisonment is appropriate had you been convicted after trial. I would have taken a starting point of 2 years’ imprisonment. In converting that amount to that of ‘Ice’, it would be insignificant or nominal. In the circumstances, I shall disregard the quantity of cocaine for the purpose of sentence.
So for the starting point for this offence, defendant, I take a notional starting point of 8 years and 6 months. For your mitigating factors, the strongest mitigation is your early plea of guilty at the first opportunity and in the circumstances you shall be sentenced in this case to 5 years and 8 months’ imprisonment.
You have been sentenced to 42 months’ imprisonment in February 2023, that is this year, that is in District Court case DCCC 1004/2021 and 281/2022. 42 months is equal to 3 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.
In sentencing you for this offence, I look at the principle of totality and taking a global view of the sentence that was passed upon you in the District Court and that I impose upon you, I consider a total term of imprisonment that you should serve is one of 7 years. That means that 3 years and 6 months of this term should be served consecutive to the District Court case in 2 years 2 months to run concurrently.