HKSAR v. Lau Kin Leung
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HCCC 154/2013 IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE CRIMINAL CASE NO 154 OF 2013 -----------------
--------------------------------- Transcript of the Audio Recording --------------------------------- COURT: Before a magistrate, the defendant has pleaded guilty to two counts: Count 1, trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely 206.45 grammes of ketamine by pure narcotic content; Count 2, possession of a dangerous drug, namely 11.74 grammes of the same. He appears before me for sentence. The facts of the case were simple. The police stopped the defendant on the street. They found the drug in Count 1 from inside a bag that he was carrying. They found the drug in Count 2 from under the edge of his underpants. Under caution, the defendant admitted that he was delivering the drug in Count 1 for someone for monetary reward. He said the drug in Count 2 was given to him for free. The defendant is aged 20. He was born in Hong Kong. He left school after form 2 and was thereafter mainly unemployed. He lived with his parents and one older sister. He has five previous convictions, four of which were for simple possession. The present offence was committed while he was on bail for the last of these convictions. In mitigation, counsel informed the court that the defendant committed the present offence, Count 1 that is to say, to get money to feed his addiction. That, of course, is not a mitigating factor. There is no other way to deal with the defendant but to sentence him to prison. Given the quantity of the drug involved, the starting point for Count 1 is 8 years, to be discounted by one-third to 5 years and 4 months because of the guilty plea. For Count 2, I will adopt a starting point of 1 year. The latent risk of trafficking being minimal, there will be no upward adjustment. Instead, the usual discount applies and it will be taken down to 8 months. I order that to run concurrently with the sentence on Count 1. The resulting composite sentence of 5 years and 4 months will adequately reflect the overall criminality of the matter. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||