CRIMINAL CASE NO. 93 OF 2010
As well as the drugs in your possession, you were also found to have the keys to premises on the 4th Floor of that building where you told the police you intended to pack the drugs.
Accordingly the premises were searched and a further quantity of drugs were found, namely a plastic bag containing 1.85 grammes of ketamine, as well as, a plastic spoon containing traces of both ketamine and cocaine.
In addition were found a number of exhibits consistent with this being a packaging operation for dangerous drugs. Indeed, you admitted as much to the police later under caution.
The drugs in those premises have led to a 2nd count of trafficking on the indictment.
You were at the time of the offences 21 years of age and of good character. Mr Boyton has told me that you succumbed to temptation for the sum of $6,000.
However, packaging drugs in a packaging centre such as this, for which you told the police you had rented the premises for that purpose, is unlikely to have been a one-off operation.
Nevertheless I am prepared to accept you are filial son and your family members have written a touching letter on your behalf which I have had translated to me and which bears that out.
The quantity of drug for sentencing purposes in relation to Count 1, namely 419.6 grammes of ketamine, would attract after trial, a sentence of between 9 and 12 years’ imprisonment within the guidelines of Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew-cheng [2009] 1 HKLRD at page 1.
The quantity of ketamine for sentencing purposes in Count 2, namely 1.85 grammes would bring you within the 2 to 4 year bracket of the same case, although it should not be forgotten that you were also trafficking in another type of drug, albeit only a trace was found, namely cocaine.
In my judgment the starting point in respect of Count 1, after trial would be a sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. The sentence in respect of Count 2 after trial would be a sentence of 2 years’ imprisonment. Allowing a full third discount for your pleas at an early opportunity, the sentences on counts 1 and 2 would respectively be 6 years and 8 months and 16 months.
The only question which remains is whether any part of the sentence on Count 2 should be ordered to run consecutively to the sentence on Count 1.
Although not a large quantity, the drugs in Count 2 were of two types, ketamine and cocaine. On the other hand, had all the drugs formed part of one charge, the tariff band applicable to ketamine, in relation to Count 1, would be - as Mr Boyton has pointed out - the same if the drugs in Count 2 were added to it and there would not be any discernable difference by the addition in that count of a minute trace of cocaine.
I am mindful that you pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity, that is, in the Magistrate’s court, whereby you were committed to this court for sentence thus saving considerable time and expense. And for that reason, in particular, I intend to make the sentence on Count 2 wholly concurrent with the sentence on Count 1.
Accordingly, the sentences that I pass on Count 1 are 6 years and 8 months’ imprisonment; on Count 2, 16 months’ imprisonment. Both sentences will run concurrently with each other thereby making an overall sentence of 6 years and 8 months.