COURT: Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a joint charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134, Laws of Hong Kong, the particulars being that you, together with the 1st accused, on 5 September last year inside the subway at the junction of Jockey Club Road and Po Shek Wu Road, Sheung Shum, unlawfully trafficked in 1.45 kilogrammes of ketamine.
The Summary of Facts which you have admitted indicates that plainclothes officers from Customs and Excise saw you together with the 1st accused at the subway of the location in question acting suspiciously. They saw you take out a green plastic bag from the shoulder bag of the 1st accused and place it in your own.
The two of you were intercepted, your bag was searched, in which a quantity of ketamine was found. Under caution, you told the Customs officer that the 1st accused had told to keep the bag and later give it to someone. You did this for a reward of $1,500.
Later, in a recorded video interview, you told the Customs officer that it was the 1st accused who approached you and asked you if you wanted to earn some money by making a delivery of precious tea for which you would be paid $1,500. You agreed and were immediately given the cash.
The total consignment of ketamine contained in a red paper bag was collected by the two of you from underneath a traffic cone and you took one of the green plastic bags contained in the red bag and put it into your own shoulder bag.
This was clearly a joint enterprise embarked upon by the two of you to traffic in this consignment of ketamine although I accept that the 1st accused was almost certainly the ringleader and the person who persuaded you to become involved. I do not, however, accept that you were unaware that the substance contained in the bags were dangerous drugs.
Your plea of guilty to this offence is sufficient confirmation to this court that you were well aware of what you were involving yourself in.
At the time of commission of the present offence you were very young, 15, although just about to turn 16. You are now 17, your birth date being only yesterday. You have a clear criminal record and it is a tragedy that one so young has become involved in a most serious offence and one for which the court has no choice but to sentence you to a lengthy term of imprisonment, despite your relative youth.
I will, however, give you credit for your plea of guilty and in sentencing you I also take account of those matters urged on your behalf in mitigation.
The sentencing guidelines for trafficking in quantities of ketamine are contained in the Secretary for Justice v Hii Siew Cheng [2008] HKCA 200 and for quantities of over 1,000 grammes of ketamine a sentence of 14 years upwards is indicated.
In this case the court is dealing with 1.45 kilogrammes of ketamine. Accordingly, I adopt as my starting point a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment. I will discount that sentence by one-third to take account of your plea of guilty, coming to 10 years’ imprisonment.
You were not the instigator of this offence and, to some extent, may well have been misled and persuaded by the 1st accused into committing this offence.
Taking this matter into account, together with your age of being only 15 at the time, and your hitherto clear record, I am prepared to give you a further discount of 18 months arriving at a sentence of 8½ years’ imprisonment.