HKSAR v. Kan Fu Yuen

HCCC94/2012

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 94 OF 2012

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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT: The defendant pleads guilty to one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 134.

The defendant was stopped in the street and searched by a police officer and was found to be in possession of a resealable plastic bag containing "Ice". Under caution, he claimed he bought the "Ice" for self-consumption. A search was conducted at his home. No drugs apparatus were found.

Upon analysis, it was found that the bag contained a total of 13.45 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 13.39 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride. The retail value of the drugs was around HK$10,000.

The defendant now admits that all the drugs seized were for trafficking purpose.

The defendant is now aged 39. He has 21 items of previous convictions of which two are related to trafficking in dangerous drugs and five are related to the possession of dangerous drugs. He was last sentenced for trafficking in dangerous drugs on 10 April this year to 16 months’ imprisonment. I was told that that was in relation to an undercover operation which happened in July 2011, but he was only arrested for that offence after his arrest for the present case whilst in remand.

By way of mitigation, I am told that the defendant is remorseful and, by pleading guilty, he has saved the court’s time, and he committed the present offence to feed his own addiction.

In sentencing the defendant, I have taken into account his guilty plea, the nature of the drugs, the relevant sentencing tariff and mitigation forwarded by counsel on his behalf.

The narcotics in the present case falls within the 7 to 10 years’ band. I adopt a starting point of 7 years’ imprisonment. I shall give him the full one-third discount for his guilty plea. He is sentenced to 56 months’ imprisonment.

I have also taken into account that he is now serving sentence in relation to another trafficking offence, which happened one month prior to the present offence, for a term of 16 months. Considering totality, I order 6 months out of the present sentence to run concurrently with that sentence, the rest to run consecutively.