CRIMINAL CASE NO. 303 OF 2010
The facts were simple. A man named Cheng was stopped by the police upon leaving a building in Mongkok and found to be carrying four bags of suspected ketamine. With the keys found on Cheng, the police entered a unit in that same building and found the drug in question plus a large number of packing paraphernalia. In the flat were the defendant and another male named Tang.
Under caution, the defendant stated that he had, on the request of Cheng, gone to the flat with Tang and there he re-packed ketamine for monetary reward.
The defendant is aged 22, 21 at the time of the offence. Born in the mainland, he was educated up to Form 3 and had worked various jobs including that of an apprentice cook, which was I was told when he came to know Cheng. The defendant was unemployed at the time of the present offence and he has no previous conviction.
In mitigation, counsel urged upon me to accept that there was no pre-planning in what the defendant did. He was at the flat with the other, even younger companion for an innocent visit and was dragged, as it were, into the matter at the last minute.
Given the amount of drug involved, the correct starting point should be one of 14½ years. Given the guilty plea, it shall be reduced by one-third to 9 years and 8 months.
For what I believe to be his lesser involvement vis-à-vis the other defendant, Cheng, in the matter, I will as a matter of pure discretion reduce it by another 8 months but that is all.
I sentence the defendant to 9 years’ imprisonment.