HKSAR v. Lam Hing Chit and Another

HCCC22/2009

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 22 OF 2009

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Before   Deputy High Court Judge Line

Date:    25 March 2009 at 10.26 am

Offence:  Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物)

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

COURT:  I have to sentence you both for trafficking in dangerous drugs.  You both face a single count of trafficking in ketamine.   

On Count 1, you, Lam Hing-chit, have to be dealt with for trafficking in 730.48 grammes of the drug.

On Count 2, Kwok Hei-yiu, you have to be dealt with in respect of 745.5 grammes of ketamine.

You would have been told that sentencing of these cases is based on guidelines, which are in turn based on the nature and weight of the drug in question.  You fall into the band that attracts a starting point after trial of between 12 and 14 years’ imprisonment.  It is not entirely a mathematical exercise, and the starting point I shall take, bearing in mind both the weight and/or the circumstances and what I have heard about you, is one of 12½ years.

You both earn a one-third discount because you pleaded guilty.  The resulting sentence in each case will be one of 8 years and 4 months.

In the case of you, Kwok Hei-yiu, there is a complication, because yesterday you were sentenced to 4 years and 4 months imprisonment for trafficking in dangerous drugs in the District Court.  That offence was committed in July of 2008.  I know from the probation report on you that thereafter you went and stayed residentially with Operation Dawn Limited, at the behest of your parents, to tackle your drug addiction.  You broke the rules by smoking in September and had to leave. 

In October you committed the offence the subject of Count 2 on the indictment.  The offence in July, it involved selling Ketamine to a fellow addict.  He told the Customs that you were the provider of it.  On the face of it, as far as I can tell he was the sole evidence against you until the Customs officers came to see you in December of last year, and you made full and frank admissions to the supply in question.

So the question that arises is how should the two sentences - the one I passed today and the one passed yesterday - relate to each other.  In the circumstances where there was a prospect of you fighting the case maybe with some success, given the nature of the evidence without your admissions, I will give you some substantial credit for making that.  I also bear in mind the mitigation advanced, in particular the question of totality.  I do not consider that you could hope for better than what I propose to do, which is to overlap the sentence by 2 years. 

So my formal order today is that the 8 years and 4 months sentence that I passed on Count 2 will commence after the expiry of the first 2 years of the sentence in DCCC79/2009.

They are long sentences.  But the history - especially you, Mr Kwok - that I see in the probation report amply demonstrates the mischief of trafficking in Ketamine.  It has ruined your young life and, of course, your activity in trafficking it yourself means it happens to others.  That is why the sentences are long ones.