COURT: Defendant, you pleaded guilty before a magistrate of one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug. Today you confirmed your plea before me and were stood convicted of the charge.
In sentencing I have considered the whole circumstances of the case, including its nature and facts, in particular the type and quantity of the dangerous drug involved, your background, and mitigation put forward on your behalf.
The facts of the case are simple. In the afternoon of 8 July 2012 you drove a private car to a location outside Olympian City 2, Mong Kok. When police officers approached you and carried out a search, two plastic bags containing ketamine were found inside a light grey bag placed under the driver’s seat of the car.
You were arrested. Under caution you admitted that you were helping someone to sell the ketamine to others. You also said that you owed the person who instructed you to deliver the ketamine $50,000 and would stop drug-trafficking activities after settling the debt. For delivery of each bag, $500 would be credited towards the debt you owed.
I was told that you are now 21 years of age. Your father passed away when you were 3 years old. Since then you have been living with your mother and elder brother. After you had finished Form 3 education, you started to work. The jobs you had engaged in included air-conditioning worker, internet installation and logistic worker.
You are not a first-time offender. In 2008 you were convicted of one charge of possession of dangerous drug, and a probation order was imposed. In 2011 you committed the same offence again, and were sentenced to receive treatment in a drug addiction treatment centre.
You were released from drug addiction treatment centre on 22 February this year, but sadly, within half a year you committed an offence again, and this time a much more serious offence.
Your counsel urged me, in reliance on letters written by a reverend, your mother and yourself, to accept that you are a person of good nature; that in committing the offence, you succumbed to the temptation of making quick money with a view to ease the financial situation of the family; now, that you are remorseful and have decided not to commit any offence again, and you are prepared to engage in study when you are serving your sentence.
The dangerous drug you trafficked in was ketamine. The total narcotic content was 0.40 kilograms.
The Court of Appeal held in the case of SJ v Hii Siew Cheng [2009] 1 HKLRD 1 that a sentence of 9 to 12 years’ imprisonment should be considered for trafficking in ketamine if the narcotic content is 300 to 600 grammes.
In all the circumstances of the case, I do not find there are good grounds to depart from the tariff. In my judgment, a starting point of 9 years and 9 months is appropriate and sufficient for this charge. You are entitled to a one-third discount for your guilty plea. In all the circumstances, bearing in mind what your counsel told me, I am of the view that this is the extent of discount you are entitled to.
By reason of the matters aforesaid, I sentence you to an imprisonment term of 6½ years.