COURT: I have to sentence you for trafficking in a dangerous drug. The drug was heroin and you had 477 grammes of it. You were caught at the airport. You had swallowed 65 pellets containing the heroin. It is a very familiar story.
You are from Tanzania and it is well known to this court that there is a flourishing drug trade that comes out of Tanzania and brings drugs, especially heroin, either into or through Hong Kong.
You will know that the sentencing for such conduct is controlled by guidelines which are based on the nature and quantity of the drug. For 477 grammes of heroin, you fall in the category that runs from 400 grammes to 600 grammes; attracting a starting point of imprisonment of 15 to 20 years after trial.
There is an aggravation in your case that the drugs were carried across an international border. The guideline talks of sentences of not less than 2 years for amounts in excess of a kilogramme. It seems to me that the courts at first instance have adopted a rough rule of thumb that for half a kilogramme to a kilogramme, the enhancement is a year. Whilst defendants often fall foul of the mathematics, sometimes they can claim the benefit of it. you are under the half and I’ll enhance your sentence by 6 months.
You were a courier and you fit a very familiar pattern. I have no doubt that the submissions made to me by your counsel, Ms Crebbin, are correct ones. The syndicate that runs this business exploits vulnerable people like you and uses them. Indeed, I now from other cases I have done that sometimes the syndicate puts more than one courier on one flight and sometimes they even tip off to get one caught so the others get through. It is a large, established, drug syndicate and, as I say, you are the person who takes the risk and the person who is used and I have no doubt the sweet talking to get you to do it described by your counsel is correct.
For those reasons, I will put you at the bottom of the bracket. So with the enhancement, the starting point is 15 and a half years. You earn a one-third discount by reason of your plea of guilty and that would create a sentence of 10 years and 4 months.
These matters are not entirely mathematical and I stand back and look at the 10 years and 4 months and say to myself, “Isn’t 10 years an adequate sentence?” and in the circumstances, I judge it to be so.
I know a purist may object, “Well, what’s the judge doing? He’s added 6 months as an aggravation and now he’s taking it away again.” That aggravation is still in the sentence. What I have done is just give some greater weight to the mitigation advanced by your counsel.
As I say, it is not all mathematics. 10 years is a long sentence and I judge it fits your crime.