HKSAR v. Ip Kwok Leung
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DCCC421/2009 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION CRIMINAL CASE NO. 421 OF 2009 ----------------------
---------------------- Before: Deputy District Judge A. Kwok Date: 4 June 2009 at 10.38 am
Offence: Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物) ----------------------------- Reasons for Sentence ----------------------------------- 1. Defendant, you pleaded guilty before me for a single count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to Section (4)(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. 2. The Particulars of Offence avers that you, on 10 March 2009, inside the male toilet, Ground Floor, Tin Ping Shopping Centre, Tin Ping Estate, Sheung Shui, New Territories, in Hong Kong, unlawfully trafficked in a dangerous drug namely, 25.3 grammes of a powder containing 19.83 grammes of ketamine. 3. The facts of the case are simple and straightforward. At the time of the offence, police officers in plainclothes spotted you and found that you were walking hastily and furtively towards a public housing estate. 4. You were thereby stopped and searched by the police in a nearby male public toilet at the shopping centre as particularised in the charge. 5. During the search, the police found a transparent plastic bag of suspected ketamine hidden underneath the insole inside the right sport shoe which you were wearing at that time. 6. You were immediately arrested by the police and, under caution, you admitted that the plastic bag which contained the ketamine, which your friend, Ah Hung, had asked you to collect from beside a drainage pipe in a nearby public housing estate, was to be delivered to Ah Hung and for that you would be rewarded for $500. 7. You further admitted that you were delivering the ketamine to make quick money and asked for the chance. 8. Today you pleaded guilty before me. I was told that you had one previous possession of dangerous drugs record which was dated in August 2008 and for which you were only fined. Obviously you had not learned a lesson from this conviction and soon after this offence you committed the present offence. 9. According to the antecedent statement you had received up to a Form 3 education in Hong Kong and you worked as a transportation worker. You are still single but you have a girlfriend and you two have a relationship for some years. You live with your mother and you have to support the family. 10. In mitigation I was told that you committed the present offence because of the financial burden. You were foolish enough to commit a very serious trafficking offence for a reward of only $500. 11. Today your counsel had also submitted letters from your sisters as well as your girlfriend, asking the court to take into account of your plea and your remorse and to pass a lenient sentence. 12. Trafficking in a dangerous drug is of course a very serious offence. Anyone who was involved in this kind of criminal activity, once caught, will expect to be dealt with severely by the court. 13. In recent years, dangerous drugs such as ketamine had become more and more prevalent in Hong Kong, so much so that the Court of Appeal has only recently revised the sentencing guideline in respect of trafficking of ketamine and Ecstasy. 14. While I accept what has been urged on behalf of you by your counsel, that you were not the mastermind of this whole scheme and that you were just a delivery boy, so you are a courier, but this factor alone in my mind will not operate to give you any discount. It only serves to say that there is no aggravating factor in this case. The Court of Appeal had also said on many occasions that family circumstances, especially in dealing with serious offences such as trafficking, would not operate as a mitigating factor. 15. The present case involved, as it were, a total of 19.83 grammes of ketamine. According to the new guideline, for trafficking of ketamine in the quantity or region between 10 to 50 grammes will be in the region of 4 to 6 years. I therefore take the view that the appropriate starting point in light of the quantity in this case would be one of 4½ years. 16. You have pleaded guilty, which is the single most important mitigating factor in this case and which warrants a usual discount of one-third. 17. Therefore, after giving you the proper discount, you shall receive a sentence of 36 months.
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