HKSAR v. Hung Wai Sum
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DCCC109/2011 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION CRIMINAL CASE NO. 109 OF 2011 ----------------------
--------------------- Reasons for Sentence --------------------- 1.Hung Wai-sum, you have been convicted on your own plea of trafficking in a 185.38 grammes of a powder containing 134.58 grammes of ketamine. 2.This charge arises from the execution of a search warrant by the police at your home in Wong Tai Sin on 21 December last year. 3.Inside the wardrobe in your bedroom the police found a plastic box containing the drugs referred to in the charge. They were in 32 separate plastic bags. Inside the same plastic box there were a plastic spoon, electronic scale and 51 empty resealable plastic bags. 4.Immediately after your arrest you admitted that you intended to sell the drugs to other people. 5.Later that same night you were interviewed, and you admitted that you had bought the ketamine the same day for $5,000 and brought it home. At your home you had weighed it and packaged it into smaller bags. You admitted that you intended to sell it, at $500 a bag, in nightclubs in Tsim Sha Tsui. If that is right, it appears you would have made a profit of $11,000. 6.You are a grown man, and it is unnecessary to tell you that the courts regard offences of trafficking in dangerous drugs very seriously. You would have known that when you committed this offence. No doubt you decided that it was worth taking the risk. 7.As I am sure Mr Lee will have told you, the normal starting point for those who traffic in between 50 and 300 grammes of ketamine is between 6 and 9 years' imprisonment. In your case, a 134.58 grammes of ketamine were involved. I am satisfied that the appropriate starting point in your case is 7 years' imprisonment. 8.You cannot claim in mitigation to be of previous good character, but I do note that none of your previous convictions have been drug related. As Mr Lee has realistically conceded, the only real mitigation in your case is your plea of guilty, and for that you are entitled to the usual discount of one-third. 9.I accordingly sentence you to 4 years 8 months’ imprisonment.
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