CRIMINAL CASE NO. 405 OF 2011
COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 97.77 grammes of a mixture containing 61.35 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
On 20 June this year he was intercepted at Customs clearance at Lok Ma Chau Border Control point on his arrival from the Mainland.
Upon examination at a hospital it was confirmed that he had foreign objects in his rectum. The defendant was arrested and cautioned and he admitted that he had ‘Sei Chai’ in him.
He subsequently discharged the drugs which are the subject matter of the count.
He claimed that he would earn about $1,000 for delivery to clients. The seized dangerous drug has an estimated retail value of HK$66,092.
In his video-recorded interview he claimed that a female friend had contacted him to deliver some stuff for her to China and on the Mainland he picked up the dangerous drugs from a male and he proceeded to put the drugs into his anus.
After clearing Customs he would discharge the packages and then call this female person to arrange for collection.
According to immigration movement records the defendant did leave Hong Kong on 20 June at 4.39 pm and returned to Hong Kong at 9.06 pm on the same day.
The defendant is aged 49 and has a poor criminal record. He has seven previous convictions and from the conviction record I can see that the offences became more and more serious as time went on. From theft he graduated to robbery. From robbery he graduated to trafficking in dangerous drugs in 2003 when he was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months’ imprisonment. That did not seem to deter him from again committing this trafficking offence.
Mr Pang in his mitigation submitted as a mitigating factor the fact that he fully cooperated with the police and he had pleaded guilty.
It is clear that the defendant committed this offence out of greed. Of course, because he pleaded guilty he is entitled to the one-third deduction for his guilty plea.
According to the guidelines laid down in Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR, page 370, trafficking of between 50 to 200 grammes of heroin would merit a sentence of 8 to 12 years as a starting point. Here the drugs are 61.35 grammes so I would consider an 8 year starting point to be appropriate.
In the case of Abdallah submitted by Mr Power, HKSAR v Abdallah [2009] 2 HKLRD 437, it is clear that the Court of Appeal had considered what factors a sentencing court should consider as aggravating features.
The aggravating features in the present case are that the defendant had previously been convicted of trafficking in dangerous drugs and he brought the drugs from the Mainland.
Because of that I will increase the sentence, the starting point, by 1½ years’ imprisonment. I will reduce the 9½ years by one-third because of his plea.
The accused is sentenced to 6 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.