CRIMINAL CASE NO. 46 OF 2011
COURT: I have to sentence you for trafficking in a dangerous drug. The drug in question was ice and the amount of it was some 14 grammes. You will know that sentencing for drug trafficking follows guidelines. Those guidelines are based on the nature and quantity of the drug. The guideline in your case extends from 10 to 70 grammes creating a starting point after trial for sentence of 7 to 10 years.
You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity in the Magistrates' Court and admitted what you had done, namely, bring drugs to your residence where you divided them up for further transmission.
You have been before the courts on 23 previous occasions. The mitigation I have heard is one of some substance because what it reveals is that when you were a young man, aged 16, you joined a Triad Society and you became addicted to heroin. You spent your early adult life committing petty crime. You have been to DATC and you have been to prison for short periods. That is a pretty gloomy prospect.
Though in 2001 you got married and you ceased offending. Your last conviction occurred in that year. You had children and you have a son aged nine and a daughter aged six. Then, frankly, tragedy struck. Your counsel has told me, in not overstated terms but ones that convey to me the effect that it must have had upon you, of what happened, which was this: that on 21 December 2009 your sister died. It was whilst dealing with her funeral matters that your father then collapsed and died on 2 January 2010. Then on 9 April of that year, in a fire, your wife received injuries that turned out to be fatal. The antecedents reveal that you then turned to taking ice.
It is said that family matters may count for little when it comes to sentencing drug traffickers and that is right, but it does not mean they count for nothing. It is my intention to give some weight to the mitigation that I have just rehearsed because it does reveal a man making a real effort to change his ways then meeting great adversity.
One of the advantages of pleading guilty in the Magistracy, and generally, is that you have not spent your credibility seeking to lie your way out of trouble. It means that more weight will be given to assertions advanced on your behalf in the mitigation. It is asserted on your behalf that the trafficking here came about as a result of you wanting to make quick money in order to buy a place in a columbarium for the ashes of your deceased wife, the implication being your drug-trafficking activity was limited just to achieving that object. I will give it some weight. It does not necessarily mean I believe it all but I will give the assertion due weight.
So bearing all of those matters in mind, I shall proceed like this: I will take a starting point of 7 years’ imprisonment after trial. You do not have any previous convictions for trafficking, although you have four for simple possession. I will then give you the one-third discount, that is 4 years and 8 months, and then I shall think about the mitigation that I have rehearsed.
I cannot do great violence to the guidelines but they are not straitjackets. In the circumstances, rather than passing a sentence of 4 years and 8 months, I intend to pass a sentence of 4 years. That seeks to strike the difficult balance between even-handedness amongst drug traffickers when it comes to sentencing and looking at the circumstances of your own particular life.
The sentence is 4 years.