HKSAR v. Kwok Man Lok

DCCC713/2012

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 713 OF 2012

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.

2.You have admitted that on 4 June 2012 outside the Wellcome Supermarket at Waterloo Road in Mong Kok, Kowloon, you trafficked in 48.01 grammes of a solid containing 39.78 grammes of cocaine.

3.The facts can quite simply be put that at about 1.30 am on that day police officers were mounting a dangerous drug operation and laid ambush outside the supermarket.  You then arrived at the supermarket in a taxi.  The officers approached you in the taxi and asked you to alight from the taxi and carried out a search upon you believing that you were in possession of dangerous drugs.

4.Upon search two transparent re‑sealable plastic bags wrapped by a piece of white tissue was found and in each of the plastic bags were a large number of pellets of crystalline white solid.  The officer asked you what the substance was and you answered, “They are cocaine.  They were given to me by Ah Keung and Ah Keung told me to bring them to Ah Mo”.  The street value of the drugs seized was HK$62,494.

5.Mr Duncan Percy, your counsel, has made full and thorough mitigation on your behalf this morning.  I have taken into account all that he has had to say.  You are aged 25 and have five previous convictions on four separate occasions when you appeared in court and none of which are similar or are drug convictions.

6.You were sentenced to prison for your last offence for 2 years in March 2010.  However, you were eventually released from prison on 4 August 2010. 

7.Mr Percy has rightly said that upon interception you were co-operative with the police from the outset.  You told them that you were in fact transporting these drugs for Ah Keung to Ah Mo.  I am informed that you had found it difficult to find good employment since your release from prison and therefore committed this offence to supplement your family’s income.

8.You took the risk of trafficking these drugs for a meagre reward of between $1,000 and $2,000 whilst the value was over HK$62,000.

9.Mr Percy has correctly referred me to the tariff case of Lau Tak Ming and the quantity of drugs which you trafficked in falls within the second bracket of between 10 and 50 grammes of which the appropriate starting point after trial should be one between 5 and 8 years’ imprisonment.

10.The quantity of drugs in your case was not small and falls at the upper end of the 10 to 50 grammes.  You had 39.78 grammes of cocaine.  Taking into account the quantity of drugs and the mitigating factors put forward, I consider an appropriate starting point to be one of 7 years’ imprisonment.

11.You have pleaded guilty and full credit must be given for your plea of guilty and that term shall be reduced to one of 4 years 8 months’ imprisonment to which you are so sentenced.