Read the full judgment text of CAAR 000003/1996 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 30 April 1996 before Power V-P, Mayo JA, Ching JA.
Criminal law – drug trafficking – sentence review – manifest inadequacy – Lau Tak-ming guidelines – entrapment – undercover police – totality principle – discount for plea – Attorney General v. Wong Kwok-wai – sentence increased to 18 months concurrent – The respondent pleaded guilty to six charges of selling drugs to undercover police. The trial judge sentenced to 8 months, citing entrapment and low narcotic content. The Court of Appeal held the sentence was manifestly inadequate; the proper starting point was 2 years under Lau Tak-ming. Applying totality and plea discount, an overall sentence of 2 years was appropriate, but further reduced to 18 months because the increase greatly exceeded the original sentence.
Legal issues: Manifest inadequacy of sentence for drug trafficking
Outcome: Application allowed; sentence varied to 18 months on each charge to be served concurrently.
Cited by 7 cases