CRIMINAL CASE NO. 21 OF 2012
COURT: I have to sentence you for trafficking in a dangerous drug.
You pleaded guilty to trafficking in ketamine. You had 0.19 kilogrammes of the drug. You were stopped carrying it in a public place. You pleaded guilty on the basis that you were a courier of those drugs, doing it for a modest reward of $1,000.
It is said on your behalf that you were exploited by the real drug trafficker and that your tender age at the time, because you were only 17 then, can be prayed in aid in support of that assertion.
One of the advantages of pleading guilty is not just the one‑third discount, but the fact that you have not spent your credibility seeking to tell lies to avoid conviction, and it means therefore that the assertions made by your counsel in mitigation are more likely to be accepted by the court.
I will deal with you on the basis suggested by your counsel. That basis includes not only the role of courier, but also the fact that your parents have both, unfortunately, suffered strokes; that you lacked their active support and have been unsupervised; and is put like this in a very nice letter your mother writes to me. It is this:
“I know that my son has done wrong, but would you please kindly take into account that all our sicknesses have not been easy for him to cope with.”
It will have been explained to you that sentencing for drug trafficking in Hong Kong is based upon guidelines which are in turn based upon the nature and quantity of the drug. For the ketamine in which you trafficked, you fall into the category that runs from 50 to 300 grammes, attracting a starting point of imprisonment after trial of 6 to 9 years.
It would take something truly exceptional to take your starting point out of that bracket. There is nothing truly exceptional in your case. However, within the bracket, I have some discretion. It is not entirely a matter of mathematics. If one did it entirely mathematically, your starting point for sentence would be in excess of 7½ years. The bracket allows a discretion and caters for the different roles people can play in trafficking drugs of the amount in question.
Because of the matters put before me in mitigation which I have summarised briefly at the beginning of what I have just now said, I have determined that it would be just to put you at the bottom of the bracket.
I take a starting point of 6 years, and after the one‑third discount, pass a sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment.
That in fact is designed to be a merciful sentence, and it reflects the nice mitigation I heard from your counsel.
Probation order discharged. 1 day’s imprisonment, concurrent, for the original offence, and if that needs a reason for it, I will just say it occurred so long ago – you were only 15 at the time - and that event is completely overtaken by the gravity of the trafficking with which I have to deal here.