COURT: Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 134, Laws of Hong Kong, the particulars being that you, on 29 December of last year, at the rear lane, 32 Dundas Street, Yau Ma Tei, unlawfully trafficked in 13.09 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
The Summary of Facts, which you have agreed, indicate that just before 9 o'clock in the evening in question, you were stopped and intercepted by plainclothes officers. You were searched and the drugs being the subject matter of the charge were found from your left front jacket pocket. You were arrested and cautioned for trafficking in dangerous drugs, in reply to which, you told the officers that you bought the "Ice" for self-consumption.
On further interview back at the police station, you told the police, inter alia, that you bought the "Ice" from a friend called ‘Sai Fei’ for HK$6,000. The drugs themselves have a street value of about $9,660.
You are 33 years of age, a cross-border driver, earning somewhere between fifteen to twenty thousand Hong Kong dollars per month and you have three previous convictions, one of which was for possession of dangerous drugs back in 1996, when you were sent to a Drug Addiction Treatment Centre.
It has been suggested by your counsel in mitigation that half of the drugs that were found on you that evening were for self-consumption and the other half for sharing with your friends or for resale. Whilst I am satisfied, having considered all the relevant circumstances, that a portion of these drugs may well have been for your self-consumption, I am unable to determine that as much as half were for self-consumption.
Clearly, on the information before me - and I refer particularly to the report from the medical officer at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre dated 17 September of this year - which indicates that you tested positive for amphetamine, which is a major active metabolite of methamphetamine, that you are a drug abuser.
Also, I am satisfied that your salary of fifteen to twenty thousand dollars per month, which has been verified by a letter from your employers, indicates that you do have the ability to pay for this quantity of drugs otherwise than by trafficking in them.
To take account of the fact that a portion of these drugs were for your self-consumption, I am prepared to give you a discount of 10 per cent or thereabouts from the normal starting point for trafficking in this quantity of "Ice", the guidelines for which can be found in Attorney General v Ching Kwok Hung, [1991] 2 HKLR 125.
For trafficking in between 10 to 70 grammes, the starting point for sentence after trial ranges from 7 to 10 years’ imprisonment. I adopt a starting point of 7 years and 3 months’ imprisonment. From this, I will give you a discount of 9 months’ imprisonment to take account of the fact that a portion of these drugs were for self-consumption, coming to 6½ years’ imprisonment.
You are entitled to a one-third discount in sentence to reflect your plea of guilty to the charge, which I do give you, arriving at a sentence of 4 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.