Read the full judgment text of CACC 000370/2006 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment before 鄧國楨 高等法院上訴法庭副庭長, 袁家寧 高等法院上訴法庭法官.
Criminal law – drug trafficking – trafficking in dangerous drugs – sentencing – application for leave to appeal out of time – discount for providing assistance to authorities – applicant arrested on 17 July 2003 for drug trafficking – applicant pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs on 16 February 2004 and sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment – 8-year sentence based on a 12-year sentencing benchmark – applicant filed notice of application for leave to appeal out of time and leave to appeal against sentence on 5 September 2006 – respondent did not oppose the out-of-time application – while serving sentence, applicant provided information and evidence against a co-offender, leading to the co-offender's conviction – applicant promised to testify at trial but did not in fact do so because the co-offender pleaded guilty – whether a 50% sentence discount was warranted under HKSAR v Z [2007] 1 HKLRD 977 when the applicant promised to give evidence but did not ultimately testify – court held that the benefit of the doubt should be given to the applicant and the case should be assessed on the basis of the applicant's promise to give evidence, rather than on the basis of the co-offender's guilty plea – 50% discount applied to the 12-year sentencing benchmark, resulting in a substituted 6-year sentence – leave to appeal out of time granted – leave to appeal granted – hearing treated as the formal appeal – sentence reduced from 8 years to 6 years.
Legal issues: Sentence discount where applicant promised to testify against co-offender but did not testify because co-offender pleaded guilty
Outcome: Leave to appeal out of time granted; leave to appeal granted; the hearing was treated as the formal appeal; sentence reduced from 8 years to 6 years.
Cited by 34 cases