On 15 March 2013 the defendant pleaded guilty in the Eastern Magistrates’ Court to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134.
She was committed to this court for sentence. This morning, the defendant confirmed her plea and her acceptance of the summary of facts. Briefly, the defendant was stopped and searched by the police in the early hours of 23 October 2012 in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, as the police found her to be acting furtively.
Upon a search, two plastic bags of “Ice”, which was a total of 27.23 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 26.25 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride, were found. The estimated retail value of the “Ice” was about HK$19,500.
Mitigation
The defendant is aged 39 and is single. She was educated up to Form 3 level. After quitting school, she had worked as a cashier but she was unemployed at the time of her arrest.
The defendant has been before the court on five previous occasions with a total of seven convictions. Three of those were possession of a dangerous drug offence and one was smoking or injecting a dangerous drug. She was sent to the DATC twice and was last released on 6 May 2011.
In mitigation, it was said that the defendant was first introduced to dangerous drugs more than ten years ago by her then boyfriend as she was told that taking dangerous drugs would increase her alcohol tolerance level and would thus assist in her work as an assistant in finger-guessing games.
Ms Chow for the defendant mentioned that in the year 2009, the defendant actually turned herself in as a sign to show to her dying mother that she indeed meant to turn over a new leaf.
This morning, letters from the defendant and the defendant’s father were given to the court. It would appear that the defendant has a very supportive family and they are prepared to stand by her. Moreover, Ms Chow told the court that the defendant has had a stable relationship with her now boyfriend who is also very caring and supportive.
In short, Ms Chow urges this court to give a most lenient sentence to the defendant as this would be her first and hopefully her last time in prison, and given her genuine remorse.
The sentence
The tariffs for trafficking in “Ice” were laid down in Attorney General v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125 and corrected in HKSAR v Capitania, CACC 28/2004, 11 August 2004, unreported.
For trafficking between 10 and 70 grammes of “Ice”, a term of 7 to 10 years’ imprisonment is called for. Having considered the amount of “Ice” involved and the facts of this case, the most lenient sentence that I could pass is to adopt a starting point of 7½ years.
The defendant pleaded guilty and she will receive a one-third reduction for her plea. In this case, other than her plea, there is nothing which would warrant any further reduction in sentence.
The defendant is therefore to serve a term of 5 years’ imprisonment for this offence.