HKSAR v. Poon Ching Lung

DCCC 781/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 781 OF 2012

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REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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The defendant pleaded guilty to a charge of "Trafficking in a dangerous drug". The dangerous drug involved is methamphetamine hydrochloride (commonly known as "ICE").

2.About 9:00 pm on 5 July 2012, PC 58285 intercepted the defendant for enquiries at the Po Tin Shopping Centre, Po Tin Estate, Tuen Mun.  Upon search, a plastic bag which contained 10.94 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 10.63 grammes of ICE (E1) was found in the defendant's right front trouser pocket.

3.Under caution, the defendant admitted that E1 contained ICE and it was for self-consumption.  In his video recorded interview, the defendant admitted that he purchased E1 at $3,000 from someone named Ah Keung about 4:00 pm that day in Mongkok.  He claimed that he did not know how much ICE, in terms of weight, was in E1.  The defendant now admits that he possessed E1 for the purpose of trafficking.

4.The defendant is now 32 and has 8 conviction records involving mainly theft and triad offences.  This case is his first drug-related offence.  The defendant is divorced and resides alone. 

5.Defence counsel Ms. MA informed me that the defendant was unemployed at the time of the offence.  Prior to that, he worked as a lorry attendant earning $12,000 per month.  He quitted that job in July this year.  Ms. MA submitted that the defendant has been taking ICE since he was 20.  In this case, he purchased the ICE for self-consumption and sale to friends; however, he had no fixed plan in apportioning the quantities for self-consumption and sale to friends.  Ms. MA explained that the defendant does not measure the amount of his ICE in-take; he goes through roughly 1 gramme per day.  He also intended to sell some to his friends when convenient in order to earn a profit to feed his drug habit.

6.I find it odd that the defendant, having been an ICE addict for over 10 years, would pay real money to purchase an unknown quantity of drug from a street peddler.  It is also strange that the defendant does not know the amount of his daily consumption.  How could he avoid drug overdose then?  It also defies common sense that he had no plan to apportion the quantities for self-consumption and sale to friends, especially when all the ICE was contained in 1 plastic bag.  How could he make any profit if he had no idea about measurement of quantities?

7.A clear message must be conveyed to the general public that "drug trafficking" is a serious crime and that drug traffickers would most certainly be punished by long-term imprisonment.

8.The Court of Appeal has laid down clear sentencing tariffs for trafficking in ICE (see A-G v CHING Kwok-hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125).  Between 10 and 70 grammes of ICE, the sentence ranges from 7 to 10 years' imprisonment.

9.In the present case, the defendant trafficked in a total of 10.63 grammes of ICE.  I adopt a starting point is 7 years' imprisonment.  The usual one-third discount is given for his guilty plea, reducing the sentence to 56 months (4 years and 8 months).  Apart from this, I see no other mitigating factors which warrant any further discount.  Regarding his claim for partial self-consumption, I am unable and reluctant to grant any meaningful discount[1] based on the available information.  On the other hand, since this is the defendant's first drug-related offence, I am prepared to give him a nominal discount of 2 months for the self-consumption element.  The sentence I pass is therefore 4 years and 6 months.