Chan Wing-hung Alias Chan Sik v. The Queen

CACC000991/1975

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG

(APPELLATE JURISDICTION)

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.991 OF 1975

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Coram: Briggs, C.J., McMullin and Pickering, JJ.

Date of Judgment: 26th January, 1976.

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JUDGMENT

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1. The appellant was found guilty of one offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs contrary to section 4 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. He was sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment.

2. The particulars of the offence are that on or about the 2nd September, 1970 he trafficked in dangerous drugs with a man called FUNG Lam and other persons. The amount of drugs concerned was 38 blocks of morphine '999', the wholesale price of which, at that time, was about $300,000. The street value in Hong Kong being something like $7,000,000.

3. The appellant appealed against both his conviction and sentence. We dismissed the appeal against conviction but we reduced the sentence of twelve years' imprisonment to one of eight years. It seemed to us that the learned Commissioner who tried the case had not taken into consideration the fact that the offence took place in September 1970, at which time the tariff for sentences for crimes of this nature was under ten years. At the present time, of course, the courts do impose sentences up to twelve years for an offence of this nature but it is necessary that the sentence for an offence should be related to the time at which the offence was committed. It is for this reason and for this reason only that we reduced the sentence from twelve years to eight years.

Representation:

P. Yu (Lau, Chan & Ko) for Appellant.

Reid for crown.