CRIMINAL CASE NO. 194 OF 2011
COURT: Yip Sau-kwan, you have been committed to this court for sentence following your plea of guilty in the Magistrates Court to trafficking in 290.94 grammes of a powder containing 227.12 grammes of ketamine. Those were the drugs that were found by the police at your home, a village house in San Hing Tsuen, in the afternoon of 8 October last year.
You were intercepted by the police when you were sitting in a car outside the house with the keys in your possession.
The drugs were found in two places in the house, under the bed in a bedroom on the 1st floor and inside the kitchen. In plastic boxes under the bed, there were a total of 31 plastic bags containing ketamine. They were together with 897 small resealable plastic bags, an electronic scale and two metal spoons.
In the kitchen, there were a further 90 plastic bags containing ketamine.
When you were arrested, you denied ownership of the drugs but you later admitted that you were assisting a male friend, Ah Wing, to store the drugs and that is a role which you still maintain was the case.
You must have been aware of the gravity of the offence you were committing and the very serious consequences that would follow if you were caught. Bearing in mind your role in the matter, I am satisfied that the appropriate starting point in your case is 7½ years’ imprisonment.
I have taken into account the letter that you have sent to the court and the letter of Sister Eugenia Montanari. I bear in mind that you are a young woman of previous good character and that you have a 9-year-old daughter who will be deprived of your company during a number of her formative years. These are, however, factors of limited significance when it comes to an offence of this gravity.
The real mitigation in this case is your remorse which you have shown by pleading guilty and, for that, you are entitled to the usual discount of one-third.
I sentence you to 5 years’ imprisonment.