HKSAR v. Lau Kwok Ying

DCCC555/2009

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 555 OF 2009

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.The defendant has pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs. The drugs concerned were 10.24 grammes of pure heroin hydrochloride.

2.The facts admitted by the defendant state that at 10.22 on the evening of 17 March, plainclothes officers saw the defendant wandering furtively at the junction of Argyle Street and Luen Wan Street in Mongkok. He gave the officers an unsatisfactory explanation as to what he was doing there and he was searched. They found a cigarette box in the right front pocket of the black coat that he was wearing, and inside the cigarette box they found the drugs, the subject matter of the charge. They were in a transparent resealable bag which contained 30 white pellets and 15 red pellets, all tightened by adhesive tapes. He said it was No. 4 heroin and it was for his own consumption.

3.The defendant has a number of previous convictions. He has been before the court on nine previous occasions for a variety of offences, and five of those offences relate to possession of dangerous drugs. I note, however, that his last conviction for drugs was in 1996. I also note that he was before the court regularly in the 80s and 90s and the early part of this century, and his last court appearance was in 2003.

4.I am told that the defendant is 48 years of age. He was born in Hong Kong and educated to Primary 6 level. He has been a construction worker, but he has been unemployed since 2008. He is married and has a 5-year-old daughter with whom he was living in a public housing estate. I am told that the defendant was formerly a drug addict.

5.Given the defendant’s previous convictions, he was well aware of the risks he was taking by carrying this quantity of heroin. As counsel representing him readily concedes, the only mitigation in this case is the fact that the defendant has pleaded guilty. In respect of the offence, I take a starting point of 5 years’ imprisonment and I reduce that by one-third to reflect the defendant’s guilty plea. He will go to prison for 40 months.

6.There was on the court list a charge of failing to surrender to custody without reasonable excuse. The defendant pleaded not guilty to that charge. The prosecution have requested that that charge be left on the court file, not to be proceeded with without the leave of the court. I grant that application.