|
HCCC375/2010
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 375 OF 2010
-----------------
| |
HKSAR |
|
| |
v. |
|
| |
Mansare Alphonse |
|
-----------------
|
Before:
|
The Honourable Mrs Justice V Bokhary
|
|
Date:
|
5 July 2011 at 3.32 pm
|
|
Present:
|
Mr Leslie Parry,counsel-on-fiat, instructed by the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
Mr David Tolliday-Wright, instructed by Messrs Krishnan & Tsang (assigned by DLA), for the Accused
|
|
Offence:
|
Trafficking in dangerous drugs (販運危險藥物)
|
-------------------------------------------
Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case
-------------------------------------------
COURT: Accused, I have carefully considered everything said on your behalf, you having been convicted by the unanimous verdict of the jury of guilty of one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs. There is no particular mitigating factor which operates in your favour, but I will sentence you to the least punishment I can impose consistent with the guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal. In doing so, I will bear in mind in your favour that you will face the additional hardship of imprisonment far away from your friends and family.
The quantity of dangerous drugs involved in this case is 950 grammes of a mixture containing 620 grammes of heroin hydrochloride and 110 grammes of monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride. For that quantity of drugs, I adopt a starting point of 21 years’ imprisonment.
There can be aggravating factors that call for enhancement of sentences. The Court of Appeal has given a number of examples and said that they did not envisage that such enhancement for any one of the examples would be less than 2 years’ imprisonment for amounts above 1 kilogram. That is directed to a minimum. It does not set a maximum.
The amount in the present case is 730 grammes of narcotic content. Of the examples given by the Court of Appeal, the first is where an international element is involved. Here the international element practically makes up the whole case, which is a case of dangerous drugs being brought to Hong Kong by air from Bangkok, hidden inside your body, which adds to the difficulty of detection by reducing the chances of detection.
In all the circumstances, I consider one-and-a-half years’ enhancement appropriate in the present case. Accordingly, I sentence you to 22½ years’ imprisonment.
Please refer to CACC292/2011 for the relevant appeal(s) to the Court of Appeal. |