HKSAR v. Li Wun Tong

DCCC 604/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 604 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.The defendant has pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in 27.49 grammes of ketamine.

2.The facts admitted by the defendant are that at 4.29 pm on 22 April 2013, the defendant was stopped by anti‑crime patrol police officers in Tonkin Street, Cheung Sha Wan.  He was unable to produce his identity card and was escorted by the officers back to his residence at Room 902, Hau Lim House in the Lei Cheng Uk Estate. 

3.When they arrived back at his home, they noticed that he was behaving in a nervous manner, and he was asked if he was hiding anything inside his pants.  He claimed that he was not.  However, he eventually took out from his underpants the drugs, the subject of the charge.  He said that he planned to sell the ketamine to friends downstairs to earn some money.

4.I am told by the prosecution that the estimated value of the ketamine was in excess of $4,000.  However, I am told by the defence that because of the quantity involved, he was able to buy the drugs for $3,000. 

5.The defendant has appeared before the court on two previous occasions.  In 2008 for possession of dangerous drugs, he was sentenced to probation for a period of 12 months.  In May 2012, he appeared before the court for two charges of possession of dangerous drugs and one charge of resisting a police officer.  I am told that one of those offences of possession of dangerous drugs was committed whilst on bail for the other offence.  I am told that he was released from the drug addiction treatment centre in May of 2012 but he has relapsed.

6.The defendant is 23 years of age.  He was brought up in a single-parent family since 2003, after his father left the matrimonial home.  Since then, he has stayed with his mother.  His mother was diagnosed with cancer some time ago but she is responding to treatment.

7.At the time of the offence, the defendant was working as a decoration worker earning some eight to nine thousand dollars per month.  I am told by the defendant’s counsel - and this is not challenged by the prosecution - that some of the drugs would have been for his own consumption and the remaining was for sharing with his friends as he told the police at the time of his arrest.  In support of that assertion, defence counsel has pointed to the fact that no paraphernalia was found inside his home to indicate that he would subdivide or repacket the drugs into smaller quantities.

8.Two letters have been placed before me, one from the defendant’s mother and one from the defendant himself.  The mother asks for leniency, and she says that she blames herself for failing to discipline the defendant properly and promises to exercise strict discipline once he is released from prison. 

9.In fairness to the mother, in my view, there is very little she can do at this stage.  The defendant has been placed on probation previously, he has been to the drug addiction treatment centre, and neither of those measures seems to have deterred him from drugtaking.  He has got to take responsibility for his own life.  It is not up to his mother to discipline him.

10.In his letter, he states that he has now gained insight and promise to change.  I am somewhat sceptical about that.  He did not change when he was on probation.  He did not change when he was given treatment in the drug addiction treatment centre.  What is going to happen to you is you will be caught again when you are released if you do not change and you will get longer and longer sentences of imprisonment.  You will be a source of great stress and anxiety to your mother.

11.As you well know, you are a drug addict, you have been to the drug addiction treatment centre, you know that if you are caught for trafficking, you are going to prison for a long time.  The sentence for possession of this quantity of drugs is in the bracket of 4 to 6 years, and the quantity involved in this case is right in the middle of that bracket. 

12.I do accept that part of those drugs would have been for your own consumption.  So the leniency I propose to extend to you is to take the starting point at the bottom end of that sentencing bracket, a starting point of 4 years’ imprisonment.  I will give you credit for your guilty plea.  That sentence will be reduced by one-third to a period of 32 months.

13.When you are released from prison, if you start trafficking in drugs, the sentences, as I said before, are just going to get longer.  You should reflect on that whilst you are in prison.