HKSAR v. Wong Chung Sing

DCCC 1223/2010

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 1223 OF 2010

-----------------

------------------------

Reasons for Sentence

------------------------

1.The Defendant is convicted upon his own plea of a single charge of Trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap.134.

2.The facts admitted by the Defendant reveal that at about 8:37 pm on 10 September 2010, PC 4883 and PC 3008 intercepted the Defendant for enquiry and search and found inside the right front trousers’ pocket of the Defendant a resealable transparent plastic bag containing 35 smaller resealable transparent plastic bags of suspected dangerous drugs which were subsequently found to contain a total of 10.10 grammes of a solid containing 8.17 grammes of cocaine. The Defendant admitted that at the material time, he unlawfully trafficked in the subject cocaine.

3.The Defendant has 33 previous convictions resulting from 19 court appearances. Out of the 33 previous convictions there are two convictions of trafficking in dangerous drugs, one sentenced in February 2000 for 4 years and 8 months and one in April 2006 for 6 years. I also noticed that his last conviction dated back to April 2006 and the second last conviction dated back to March 2000, more than ten years from the date of the present offence. As the Defendant’s long history of conviction dated back to more than 10 years ago, in imposing the present sentence I am not going to take into account of his previous conviction record to upward adjust the sentence.

4.According to the antecedent statement relating to the Defendant, he was born in Hong Kong in 1967. He is now 43 years old. He received education up to Form 4 level. Prior to his arrest, he was a transportation worker earning HK$9,000 a month.

5.In mitigation, I was informed that after the Defendant’s last release from imprisonment in September 2009, he wanted to give some money to his 18-year-old daughter who lived in the US with the Defendant’s elder sister. He borrowed HK$70,000 from a friend for that purpose. When his friend chased for repayment, the Defendant was unable to make repayment. He therefore resorted to drug trafficking, hence this offence.

6.Mr. Kwong of the defence submitted a Court of Appeal case HKSAR v Tsang Hin Chung CACC 113/2004 in which the Court of Appeal held that a starting point of 50 months’ imprisonment for trafficking of 7.48 grammes of cocaine was not at all excessive.

7.Mr. Kwong of the defence also sensibly submitted that the defence was not going to pursue the argument that part of the cocaine was for the Defendant’s consumption. 

8.The Court of Appeal in Attorney General v Rojas [1994] 1 HKC 342 held that the sentencing guidelines for trafficking in heroin laid down in R v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR 370 were applicable to trafficking in cocaine. For trafficking of heroin of a quantity of below 10 grammes, the imprisonment term ranges from 2 to 5 years.

9.In the present case, 8.17 grammes of cocaine were involved. I consider it appropriate to adopt a starting point of 4 years and 6 months’ imprisonment. In light of the Defendant’s guilty plea, I give him 1/3 discount on sentence. I do not consider there being any other mitigating factors justifying further reduction in sentence. The Defendant is therefore sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment.