HKSAR v. or Chor Sik

DCCC 23/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 23 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.Or Chor-sik, you have been convicted on your own plea of the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs.

2.On 10 October last year you were stopped by police outside a supermarket in Hollywood Plaza in Diamond Hill.  You were found to be carrying the drugs, which are the subject of this charge, namely 55.91 grammes of a mixture containing 10.75 grammes of heroin hydrochloride, in two packets in one of your trouser pockets. 

3.The estimated retail value of the heroin at that time was over $51,000.

4.When you were arrested, you claimed that you had collected the drugs from a garbage bin in the men’s washroom on the upper floor of the plaza and that you had been promised $800 to deliver them to San Po Kong.  In the shoulder bag you were carrying, the police found $58,898.50.

5.When you were first interviewed, you claimed that that money was savings, your savings.  But when you were interviewed the following day, you admitted that you were unemployed and that you depended on comprehensive social service assistance in the sum of $2,600 per month.

6.You then claimed that you had obtained the $58,898.50 from playing mahjong.  But you claimed that you could not remember whom you played with or when you had won it.  You also said that you had been asked to deliver the drugs to a restaurant in Tai Yau Street in San Po Kong. 

7.You are a man of 62, with a multitude of previous convictions, most of which are connected to dangerous drugs.  On three occasions you had been found guilty of trafficking offences and sentenced to substantial terms of imprisonment.

8.You would have been in no doubt when you committed this offence that very serious consequences would follow if you were caught.  You decided to take that risk presumably because of the financial rewards trafficking would bring. 

9.I am satisfied that the appropriate starting point in your case is a sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment.  You have pleaded guilty and are entitled to the usual discount of one-third.  Therefore, the sentence that the court passes on you today is one of 40 months’ imprisonment, that is 3 years 4 months’ imprisonment, and that is to take effect from today.