COURT: The defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in dangerous drugs as follows:
(a) The 1st count involves 1.81 grammes of ketamine and 95.04 grammes of cocaine.
(b) The 2nd count involves 350 grammes of ketamine and 3.81 grammes of cocaine.
At about 7.58 pm on 5 February last year, police officers saw the defendant walking out from the lift of Yau Woo Building at 134 Fa Yuen Street. There was a female with him. They were intercepted at the lift lobby.
An officer searched the defendant and found from his right jeans pocket six re-sealable plastic bags of cocaine and two bags of ketamine, the subject matter of the 1st charge.
There were also three mobile phones, two bags of soda powder and cash, $14,225 found.
He was taken back to his home at Room 1, Flat C, 14th floor of the same building for search.
The drugs in the 2nd charge were found inside a shoebox in the cupboard under the kitchen sink. There were also an electronic scale, a pair of scissors and a bundle of re‑sealable plastic bags.
The defendant admitted under caution that all the drugs belonged to him. He was instructed by Ah Keung to deliver the drugs to someone. He would receive a reward of $2,000 per delivery. The total market value of the drugs was about $212,000.
The defendant is 19, he has two previous convictions. They were not related to drugs. He received education up to Form 4. His parents divorced when he was seven. The defendant had little attention from his mother who was busy earning a living. The defendant is single and resides at the room mentioned above. He was a part-time waiter at the time of the offence earning about $7,000 a month. He was not a drug addict. His father passed away recently. He urged this court to be lenient, given his limited involvement in the case.
In relation to the 1st count, for the 1.81 grammes of ketamine, according to SJv. Hii Siew Cheng ([2009] 1 HKLRD 1) the starting point should be two years and two months’ imprisonment.
For the 95.05 grammes of cocaine, according to Lau Tak Ming ([1990] 2 HKLR 370), the starting point should be nine years and two months’ imprisonment.
I adopt the approach in HKSAR v. Wong Kin Kau CACC269/2009 for sentencing as there are two kinds of drugs. In arriving at the combined starting point, I have considered the following.
Trafficking in 95.04 of cocaine warrants an imprisonment of nine years and two months. Trafficking in 1.81 grammes of ketamine would be roughly equivalent to the criminality of trafficking in 0.5 grammes of cocaine. I add this notional 0.5 grammes to the 95.04 grammes of cocaine. The total is 95.5 grammes of cocaine.
The defendant is sentenced on the basis of trafficking this equivalent amount of cocaine.
For 95.54 grammes of cocaine, the sentence should be nine years and three months’ imprisonment. There is no evidence that the two drugs would be mixed to increase potency.
Having considered the quantity of drugs and the mitigation, I take nine years and three months as the combined starting point for the 1st count. I deduct three years and one month for his plea. I sentence the defendant to six years and two months’ imprisonment for the 1st count.
For the 2nd count, the 350 grammes of ketamine should attract a starting point of nine years and six months’ imprisonment. The 3.81 grammes of cocaine should attract a starting point of three years and two months’ imprisonment. The criminality of trafficking in 3.81 grammes of cocaine is equivalent to 5.8 grammes of ketamine.
Adopting the approach as set out in Wong Kin Kau, I take the combined starting point of nine years and seven months for the 2nd count. I deduct three years and two months for his plea. I sentence the defendant to six years and five months’ imprisonment for the 2nd count.
In view of the totality principle, I order that one year and 10 months of the sentence of the 2nd count to run consecutive to the sentence of the 1st count.
The defendant has to serve a total of eight years’ imprisonment for two counts.