HKSAR v. Li Tin Long

DCCC13/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 13 OF 2009

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Before:   Deputy District Judge M. Chow

Date: 25 March 2009 at 10.00 am

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

Reasons for Sentence

1. You pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs before me.  The prosecution case was that PW1 and 2 stopped you after a brief chase.  Exhibits 1 and 2 were found from your trousers pocket and, under caution, you say that these drugs were for your own consumption and the Government Chemist certificate states that the 40 packets contain a total of 10.95 grammes of a solid containing 7.82 grammes of cocaine.

2. And in respect of your criminal record, you have two previous convictions and one similar to the present charge, and that was trafficking in dangerous drugs.  You were sentenced to four years four months in July 2004.

3. In mitigation, I was told you are now 25 and you live with your family and, after your release from your previous sentence which you served in April 2007, you had a steady job as a kitchen worker but you were laid off last year 2008, round about the time you committed the present offence, and you are not a drug abuser.

4. Now, the nature of the drug is cocaine, and this is a kind of hard drugs that the authority we have mentioned is applicable to the present sentence, Lau Tak Ming.  I, therefore, have taken into account of all the mitigating factors before me and the quantity of drugs involved.  I adopt a starting point of four years.  I give you 50 per cent discount and reduce to two years to reflect your guilty plea.