CRIMINAL CASE NO. 70 OF 2009
COURT: The defendant pleads guilty today to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, being 979.26 grammes of a powder containing 562.49 grammes of cocaine.
A 2nd charge of possession of dangerous drugs was left on the court file, not to be proceeded with without leave of the court or the Court of Appeal.
The facts which the defendant admitted revealed that he was stopped as a result of police acting on information that someone would use a car to hand over some drugs. The defendant was seen by the police to be driving a car. He then parked it and proceeded on foot. In his hand he carried a black carrier bag. He looked flurried and was seen looking about him.
Police stopped and searched him at about 1556 hours in the afternoon. The bag was found to contain another bag in which was seen a quantity of suspected dangerous drugs.
The defendant told the police he had carried the “bag of stuff” back from Sheung Shui. When questioned, he said, “This bag of stuff is cocaine. I will get $10,000 on each occasion.” Later, under caution, he told the police he had driven, as instructed by a man called “Lo Yau”, to Sheung Shui to collect the cocaine from behind a toilet in a public lavatory. He was on his way home when he was intercepted.
The estimated street value of the drug was $854,472.
The defendant has one criminal record which is not similar, that of managing a vice establishment. That offence is 10 years old. He is now aged 35. He was unemployed at the time of his arrest. He has a wife, from whom he is divorced, and a 9-year-old daughter as a result of that relationship. At the time of the arrest he was living with his girlfriend, who is present in court today.
In mitigation I was advised that he came from a family where financial hardship was not unknown because the father had died when he was quite young. The defendant himself had received an injured leg in an industrial accident. He received some compensation for that injury, but he has not been able to get a permanent job since that time, because of the after-effects of the injury.
In mitigation I was told that he had been supported by his girlfriend and felt ashamed at being supported by his girlfriend, which is one of the reasons why he took on this task of collecting the drugs.
Letters setting out the family’s circumstances have been received from the mother, the sister and the brother of the defendant, as well as from his girlfriend. His counsel advises that he is very remorseful about his offence and that he and his family members seek a light sentence for his early release.
This is a very substantial quantity of drug that was found in the defendant’s possession. Under the Lau Tak Ming guidelines which apply to cocaine, the range of sentence runs from 15 to 20 years for this particular quantity of drug.
I adopt a starting point for this charge of 18 years. I give the full one-third discount to recognise the defendant’s plea of guilty. However, regardless of whatever sympathy I might have in respect of his personal circumstances, the only mitigation of any value is that plea.
The defendant will be sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.