HKSAR v. Chow Wai Sing, Vincent

HCCC243/2009

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 243 OF 2009

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Transcript of the Audio Recording

of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT:  Defendant, please stand.  Defendant had pleaded guilty in the court below to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 56.83 grammes of a mixture containing 47.73 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. 

The facts are all too common.  The defendant was stopped and searched and the drugs were found on his person.  Under caution he said that he was delivering the drugs for another person in return for money to buy food.  He refused to give any details of the person who employed him to deliver the drugs, apart from a physical description.

The defendant is aged 45 and has a string of what, I would agree with Mr Leung, we call petty crimes.  He has had some six occasions when he was charged with possession of dangerous drugs and had been sent to a Drug Addiction Treatment Centre.  Now, this string of drug convictions were from 1991 to 1993.  After that, he was convicted of various offences and his last offence was in 2008 for a different offence, which he was sentenced to 4 months' imprisonment.

The only mitigation I can see in this case is the fact that he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.  The background of the defendant, that he is married with a young daughter, does pale into insignificance in view of the serious offence that he faces.

The Court of Appeal in R v Lau Tak-ming [1990] has laid down guidelines for sentencing for trafficking in heroin and it was recommended that for trafficking of between 10 to 50 grammes of heroin, 5 to 8 years' imprisonment as a starting point is reasonable.  In this case, the total amount of heroin hydrochloride is 47.73 grammes, which would merit a sentence of between 7½ to 8 years.

In this case, as Mr Leung pointed out, it is his first really serious offence so I am minded, therefore, to take the lower of the 7½ to 8 years.  So I will sentence the defendant to 7½ years' imprisonment as a starting point, reduced by one-third because of his plea.  So the defendant goes to prison for 5 years.