HKSAR v. Tse Ming Wai

DCCC681/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 681 OF 2012

----------------------

---------------------

Reasons for Sentence

---------------------

1.The defendant pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in 21.92 grammes of ketamine.

2.Shortly after 11.30 on the evening of 11 June 2012, two police officers were on duty in Sau Mau Ping when they noticed the defendant acting suspiciously in the rear seat of a taxi.  They approached the defendant, searched him and found the drugs the subject of the charge in two transparent resealable plastic bags which they took from his right front pocket. 

3.The defendant immediately admitted to the police at the scene that he was delivering ketamine for somebody called Ah Ling and he was to receive a reward of $300.  Apparently, at the time he was spotted by the police, he was sat in the taxi awaiting further delivery instructions from this Ah Ling.

4.The defendant not only admitted the offence at the scene, he subsequently repeated those admissions in a subsequent video recorded interview. 

5.The street value of the drugs is $2,300.

6.The defendant has five previous convictions, but only one of them is drug-related.  All his convictions were in the period from 1995 to 1998, and apart from being given a suspended prison sentence of one month in respect of one of the offences, all the others were dealt with by way of a fine.  The last offence in 1998 was for possession of dangerous drugs, he was fined $2,000. 

7.The defendant is 40 years of age.  He was educated to Form 3 level.  At the time of his arrest, he was working as a transport worker.  I am told by his counsel that that was on Lantau Island and he was working casually.

8.The defendant lives alone, he is separated from his wife and there is an 18-year-old daughter from that relationship.  The daughter lives with the mother but, unfortunately, she has been suffering from depression and she required medical treatment to deal with that condition.  I have been given certain medical documents to confirm that situation. 

9.I am told that one of the reasons the defendant committed this offence was in order to raise money to be able to finance his daughter’s medications.

10.He also has a mother from who he lives separately and he has been supporting her as well.

11.The defendant has his younger brother and a friend in court today, and they indicate that they are going to stand by the defendant and they will support him, and they are optimistic for his future once he is released from prison.

12.The main mitigating features in this case are that the defendant was extremely co-operative with the police when he was initially stopped by them and he has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. 

13.As his counsel has acknowledged, and no doubt discussed with him, because of the quantity of ketamine recovered from the defendant, the sentence which it normally attracted would be in the range of 4 to 6 years as the starting point.

14.As his counsel has stated, the quantity involved in this case is towards the lower end of that scale.  I therefore propose to take a starting point of 4½ years’ imprisonment and reduce that by one-third to reflect the guilty plea.  The defendant will therefore go to prison for 3 years.