HKSAR v. Chan Siu Fai
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DCCC1051/2010 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1051 OF 2010 ----------------------
--------------------- Reasons for Sentence --------------------- 1.Chan Siu-fai, you have been convicted on your own plea of one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs and one charge of possession of dangerous drugs. Both charges arise from the police stopping you in a corridor of a building in Kowloon Road, Cheung Sha Wan in the early evening of 20 July this year. 2.In one of your trouser pockets, the police found the drugs that form the subject matter of the possession charge, 0.24 grammes of a mixture containing 0.15 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. You claimed that you had bought those drugs the same day for your own consumption. 3.In your other trouser pocket the police found the drugs that are the subject of the trafficking charge, 28.23 grammes of a mixture containing 19.41 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. 4.You claimed that you had been asked by somebody to deliver those drugs in return for a reward of $200. Initially you referred to the person who had entrusted you with this task as a friend, later you told the police you did not know him but today you have again admitted that it was a friend. 5.You are a man of 48 years of age and have already been before the courts 15 years ago for an offence of possession of drugs and of trafficking in dangerous drugs. A substantial term of imprisonment was imposed upon you on that occasion. You would therefore have been well aware that very serious consequences would follow if you were caught with these drugs. Nevertheless, you decided to take the risk. 6.I am sure Mr Ng will have informed you that the normal starting point for those who traffic in between 10 and 50 grammes of heroin is between 5 to 8 years’ imprisonment. I see no reason to depart from the normal sentencing tariff on the charge of trafficking against you. In your case I am prepared to adopt a starting point at the lowest end of the band, namely 5 years’ imprisonment. 7.The only real mitigation in respect of the offence of trafficking is your plea of guilty and for that you are entitled to the usual discount of one-third. 8.On charge 1, I therefore sentence you to 40 months’ imprisonment, that is 3 years, 4 months. 9.Insofar as the trafficking charge, charge 2, is concerned, I adopt a starting point of 1 year’s imprisonment. I discount that by one-third to reflect your plea of guilty. On charge 2, you are therefore sentenced to 8 months’ imprisonment which I order to run concurrently with the sentence on charge 1. 10.So the total sentence that I impose upon you is therefore 3 years, 4 months.
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