HKSAR v. Ho Chei Kuen

HCCC331/2009

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 331 OF 2009

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HKSAR

v

HO CHEI KUEN(何子娟)

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 Before:  The Honourable Madam Justice Beeson

Date: 11 December 2009 at 9.50 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:  This defendant pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug.

The quantity was 54.24 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 53.83 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride, commonly known as “Ice”.

The defendant entered a plea of guilty at committal on 16 October this year.  Today, in front of me, she confirmed the plea and also confirmed the facts that she had admitted at committal.

Briefly, the facts show that the defendant was returning from mainland China when she was stopped and searched at the Lok Ma Chau crossing point.  Suspected dangerous drugs were found concealed in her underwear.  She was arrested and cautioned, and said that a woman asked her to bring the dangerous drugs to Hong Kong for payment of $500.

Government Chemist's analysis confirmed the quantities as set out in the charge.

The estimated street value is $32,869.

Immigration records show that the accused had left for mainland China on 22 May 2009 at 0348 hours from Lok Ma Chau.  She returned to Hong Kong on the same day, at 2017 hours, at the same crossing point.

The defendant told police that she agreed to take the drugs across because she was jobless and needed the money. 

The accused has a record which starts in 1989 with a conspiracy to defraud, for which she was given a suspended sentence.  In 2002, she was fined for an offence of theft.  In 2003, she was convicted of a number of offences, two for possession of dangerous drugs and two for possession of Part 1 poisons, and for all those offences she was placed on probation for 24 months.  She apparently committed breaches of the probation order, so the order was discharged in 2004 and a Drug Addiction Treatment Centre order was made.

I am advised that the accused was brought up by a foster mother, who died when she was 19.  She has had a number of relationships with different men which resulted in the birth of four children altogether.  The children were taken care of in each case by her boyfriend.  In 1998 she married a man, but divorced him in 2002.  They have no children.  In late 2007, she began cohabiting with another man, and she was with him until she was arrested.

The only mitigating factor in this case is the defendant’s plea of guilty, which was an early plea.

The tariff case for sentences of this nature is Attorney-General v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125, a case decided in 1991.  For 10 to 70 grammes, the tariff is a 7 to 10-year sentence of imprisonment.

In this case, I adopt a starting point of 8 years.  I give a full one-third discount, and impose a sentence of 5 years and 4 months.