CRIMINAL CASE NO. 418 OF 2011
COURT: Lai Hon-chung, the dangers of dangerous drugs are well known. You are fully aware of them. I don’t propose to say any more about it.
You took the risk that you would not be caught; you were caught.
There is nothing in your personal circumstances or in the circumstances of the commission of the offence that I find to be of any mitigating value.
I note that you have a criminal record, but I am not going to increase your sentence because of that record. I am not regarding it as an aggravating feature.
I am prepared to treat both offences with which you are charged as arising out of the same course of criminal conduct, and I propose to pass a concurrent sentence on you in respect of both counts on the indictment.
Your only mitigation is your plea of guilty. A plea of guilty indicates realism on your part, and realism is taken as a sign of contrition and remorse.
Mr Ng, your counsel, will have told you that there are guidelines laid down for my guidance and the guidance of all judges as to how we should sentence people who engage in the filthy trade of drug trafficking. He will have told you that we are expected to stick to those guidelines unless there are very good reasons for us not to do so. There are no very good reasons in your case.
I am telling you that had you taken this matter to trial and had a jury found you guilty, you would have been looking at a sentence in respect of the 1st count of 5 years’ imprisonment, and in respect of the 2nd count, where there is a very large quantity of ketamine involved, a sentence of 16 years’ imprisonment.
Because of your pleas of guilty, I am going to discount those sentences by one-third.
Your sentence on the 1st count in respect of the smaller quantity of ketamine and the relatively small quantity of “Ice” is one of 3 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.
Your sentence on the 2nd count, where we are dealing with over three kilogrammes of a powder containing nearly two kilogrammes of ketamine, is one of 10 years and 8 months’ imprisonment.
Those sentences are to be served concurrently - at the same time - which means that for both offences you are going to be in prison for 10 years and 8 months.