COURT: You two defendants have been committed to this court for sentence having pleaded guilty in the court below to individual charges of trafficking in dangerous drugs. In your case, D1, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking in 1.35 kilogrammes of “ice”, the first charge; and you, D2, have pleaded guilty to trafficking in 1.43 kilogrammes of “ice”.
The facts of this case, which you have both acknowledged as being correct, establish that you both, after some persuasion from a person named as Ah Roy, agreed to traffic drugs to Australia for a reward of some $80,000 each. Ah Roy arranged visas for you both and you two met him at the Miramar Travel Agency when you joined a group tour to Australia. On the morning of 28 March you both went by train to Shenzhen where, on the instructions of Ah Roy, you went to a hotel where a man came and strapped the drugs, being the subject matter of the separate charges, to your legs. You then returned to Hong Kong the same day, arriving by car at the airport, where you were both arrested by the authorities.
With regard to you, D1, you are 41 years of age. You have no previous convictions. You are a divorced lady, but have a 15 year old daughter. I am told that the reason that you committed this offence was because you were emotionally upset at the time, having recently broken up with your boyfriend.
D2, you are 35 years of age. You are unmarried, but have three children with your cohabitant. Your reasons for committing this offence were due to the fact that you needed money in order to assist in raising the three young children. You had over-borrowed and needed to repay your debts.
In sentencing you both, I take into account all that has been said on your behalves by your respective counsel. I acknowledge that you have both cooperated with the authorities, but it is your respective pleas of guilty to these serious charges that is the only real mitigation and I will give each of you the appropriate discount in sentence to reflect this. There is, however, an aggravating feature here in that there is a very obvious international element. You collected the drugs from the mainland, brought them to Hong Kong and were on the verge of exporting them to Australia before you were intercepted.
With regard to sentence, the guidelines for trafficking in “ice” are to be found in AG v Ching Kwok Hung, and for trafficking in over 600 grammes, 18 years and upwards is the appropriate starting point.
As far as you, D1, are concerned, I take as my starting point a sentence of 19 and a half years imprisonment. I will increase that by 2 years to reflect the aggravating feature that I have identified, coming to 21 and a half imprisonment. I discount that sentence by one-third to take account of your plea of guilty, arriving at a sentence of 14 years and 4 months imprisonment.
With regard to you, D2, I adopt a starting point of 20 years imprisonment. That sentence will likewise be enhanced by 2 years to take account of the international element, coming to 22 years imprisonment. This will be discounted by one‑third to have regard to your plea of guilty, coming to 14 years and 8 months imprisonment.
Please refer to CACC426/2013 for the relevant appeal(s) to the Court of Appeal.