CRIMINAL CASE NO. 384 OF 2011
COURT: Chan Chun-wing, you have been committed to this court for sentence following your plea of guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to two charges of trafficking in a dangerous drug.
The offences took place just over a year ago, on 17 December last year, at a flat which was your home in Yuen Long. The police had obtained a search warrant to search your home for dangerous drugs and they were waiting outside the flat.
Just before 6 pm you came out of the flat and just before you closed the door of the flat you were approached by police officers. When they attempted to detain you, you put up a violent struggle and attempted to get back into the flat but you were eventually subdued.
In your trouser pocket the police found the drugs that are the subject of the first trafficking charge, namely, 1.67 grammes of a powder containing 1.2 grammes of ketamine. When you were interviewed later in the day you admitted you were going to sell that ketamine to somebody for $200.
After the police had searched your person they searched your bedroom inside the flat where they found the drugs that are the subject of the 2nd charge. They consisted of 31 plastic bags containing a total of 344.38 grammes of a powder containing 278.99 grammes of ketamine, 15 plastic bags containing a total of 4.59 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 4.37 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride, two plastic bags containing a total of 0.73 grammes of cannabis in herbal form and a plastic bag containing two tablet fragments containing nimetazepam.
The police also found two packets containing small empty plastic bags and an electronic scale. You later admitted that you had bought the drugs that were found in your bedroom and would use the electronic scale to divide the drugs up into small packets for sale. The estimated total value of the drugs found by the police that day was just over $46,000.
You are a man now of 39 years of age with a number of previous convictions, including convictions for possession of dangerous drugs. This, however, is the first time that you have been convicted of an offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs. Your previous encounters with the law in relation to dangerous drugs would have left you under no illusions regarding the sentence you would receive if you were caught trafficking in dangerous drugs.
I am satisfied that the appropriate starting point in respect of the drugs that are the subject of Count 1 is 2 years’ imprisonment. Taking into account in respect of the drugs referred to in Charge 2, that you had not merely the ketamine but also quantities of three other drugs which were intended for sale, I am of the view that the appropriate starting point on that charge is 9 years’ imprisonment.
The only real mitigation in your case is your early plea of guilty in the Magistrates’ Court indicating remorse on your part and that plea or those pleas, rather, entitle you to the usual discount of one-third.
On Charge 1, I therefore sentence you to 1 year 4 months’ imprisonment; on Charge 2, I sentence you to 6 years’ imprisonment, both sentences are to run concurrently.
Accordingly, the total sentence passed on you today is 6 years’ imprisonment.