COURT: The defendant had pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely 82.06 grammes of a mixture containing 70.37 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. She was committed to this court for sentencing.
The facts are that on the afternoon of January this year the defendant left her flat and police intercepted her, and upon a search of Room B of the flat pursuant to a search warrant, she was the sole tenant of that room, and in the living room the police found the heroin which is the subject matter of the charge.
There were also found a bag of caffeine together with an electronic scale and a plastic bag containing a stack of square white papers. Part of the heroin found was already packed into 192 pellets of heroin.
Under caution, the defendant admitted that she intended to sell the drug to drug addicts to make money.
The estimated retail value of the total amount of drugs found was about HK$67,000.
In a video-recorded interview, the defendant said that she had bought the heroin for $45,000, and she would grind the heroin and mix it with the caffeine before wrapping it into the square papers for selling to people in pellets. So there was no question that the defendant was running a simple but effective drug-packaging centre.
The defendant has a clear record in Hong Kong and is aged 43. She was a domestic helper at the time of arrest and she said that she had worked as a security guard before that. I understand from mitigation by Mr Chain that the defendant also has hepatitis. She had two sons from her first marriage who are living with her first husband in China. According to Mr Chain, she got herself into a marriage of convenience in 2005 by marrying a man who is over 70 years old in order to come to Hong Kong. She got her one-way permit to come to Hong Kong in 2010, and she divorced her second husband in 2012, and she got arrested in January 2013.
The defendant claims that she is very remorseful, and Mr Chain showed the court her crying in a video‑recorded interview to demonstrate the fact that she is remorseful. Mr Chain in mitigation said the defendant had a tragic life, and I do not agree at all. The defendant has been given many chances in her life. She was able to come to Hong Kong. She was able to get a job as a security guard and a domestic helper, yet she did not take advantage of that, and instead indulged herself in getting easy money by repackaging drugs.
The only sympathy the court feels is with the potential victims, because the defendant was targeting drug addicts who would succumb to the temptation that the defendant willingly offers them by selling to them pellets of dangerous drug which she was going to make a profit on. She was targeting drug abusers outside the Tuen Mun Methadone Clinic. She was taking advantage of their vulnerability in order to make a quick profit for her own selfish ends.
Mr Chain correctly pointed out that the sentence has been laid down for trafficking in heroin in the case of Lau Tak Ming [1990] HKLR 370. The Court of Appeal said for trafficking in between 50 to 200 grammes, the recommended sentence is 8 to 12 years’ imprisonment.
Here, the amount of heroin hydrochloride is 70.37 grammes, and I consider that an appropriate starting point is one of 8½ years. There are no mitigating factors apart from the fact that the defendant pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. She is entitled to one-third discount.
So she is going to go to prison for 5 years and 8 months.