HKSAR v. Li Kam Cheong

HCCC150/2009

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 150 OF 2009 

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Before:   Deputy High Court Judge Mackintosh

Date:  29 June 2009 at 9.54 am

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

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

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COURT:  Li Kam-cheong, stand up.  You were caught trafficking over 1.1 kilograms of ketamine in a 1.6 kilogram mixture, which you admitted you brought across the border from the mainland.  You said you were delivering it for someone else for a $1,500 payment and were waiting for a phone call to tell you where to deliver it when you were intercepted by Customs officers, who, if they were acting entirely on their suspicions at the time, are to be commended for their vigilance.  I would like that to be done if that is the case.  I do not know whether they were acting on information or just suspicions gained from what they saw.  But if it is on suspicion from what they saw, they need to be commended.  I would like that to be passed on, please. 

At any rate, the drugs had a street value of over a $180,000.  You have pleaded guilty in the magistracy to trafficking in dangerous drugs and have been committed to the Court of First Instance for sentence.  As you would have been told, sentence for trafficking in dangerous drugs invariably follows sentencing guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal.  This is so that all traffickers in a particular type of dangerous drug are sentenced on the same basis, and that is fair to everybody.  

The guidelines prescribe a term of at least 14 years’ imprisonment for trafficking in this quantity of ketamine.  I say “at least” because in actual fact if you had exercised your right to be committed for trial, and had then pleaded guilty only on the day your case had been listed for trial, a slightly higher starting point, perhaps of 14½ years, would have been justified.  But you have cooperated from the start and, unlike many offenders, have pleaded guilty before committal.  Of course that will result in a discount of one-third from that starting point, but the court has some discretion as to exactly where the starting point should be and, in my view, it should use that discretion where the plea of guilty has been entered in the magistracy to pitch this starting point at the lowest possible level.  That is the best way to encourage these early pleas of guilty, which is in the interest of the proper administration of justice.  That results, in your case, in a sentence of 9 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.  That is one-third off the 14 years.

We have referred already today to the fact that the sentencing guideline case which is called Hii Siew Cheng dealt with sentences considered by the Court of Appeal for offences of bringing the drug over the border.  But unlike in heroin cases - and I refer here to the case of Abdallah Anwar Abbas - the terms laid down were not increased because of the international element of trafficking.  In fact, of course, pretty well all drug trafficking has an international element here in Hong Kong because there is not much manufacture here in Hong Kong, and sentences could always be increased to reflect that fact. 

However, in the exercise of my discretion and given your early plea and full cooperation, I do not increase the sentence simply because you were bringing it in from the mainland.  Hence the term that you have to serve is one of 9 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.  That is the lowest possible sentence that I can properly impose upon you.