CRIMINAL CASE NO. 217 OF 2012
COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug involving 1.73 kilogrammes of ketamine by pure narcotic content. He appears before me now for sentence.
The facts of the case were as follows. The police officers saw the defendant coming out from a flat. They stopped him. They found from his bag the drug in question.
Under caution, the defendant admitted couriering the drug for monetary gain.
The defendant is aged 22, soon to be 23. He was born in Hong Kong, educated up to Form 2 level, previously a blue‑collar worker, but unemployed at the time of the offence.
He has two previous convictions, one of which was of a similar nature. For that 2006 conviction he was sentenced to rehabilitation centre.
In mitigation, counsel stated that the defendant was a mere courier at the bottom of the hierarchy of the illicit drug business and that he committed the present offence because of acute financial pressure.
Taking into account the quantity of the drug involved and everything that can be said for and against the defendant, the proper starting point in this case should, in my judgment, be one of 15 years.
Because of the guilty plea it shall be reduced by one‑third to 10 years. That is all the discount the defendant is entitled to and deserves.
He will go to prison for 10 years.