COURT: Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.
You admitted, on 16 September 2013, at Ka Wai Chuen, Hung Hom, in Hong Kong, you unlawfully trafficked in 26.91 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 26.32 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
On the day in question, officers were conducting an operation at Ka Wai Chuen. They intercepted you and asked for your ID card. You replied that you had lost your ID card. They then searched you and inside the handbag you were carrying, within a cigarette box, were the drugs. In your possession were two mobile phones and cash of approximately $7,000.
The estimated street value of the drugs was approximately $17,000.
You are a young lady of, now, 19 years old but, at that time, 18 years old and are of clear record. Hence this is your very first offence.
You have been living with your aunt and uncle since you were a young child of between 4 to 5 years old. I am informed that your father passed away in 2006 and your mother, whom you do have some contact with, is, unfortunately, also now incarcerated for a similar offence related to drugs.
Your counsel, Mr Jonathan Kwan, has mitigated fully and thoroughly on your behalf and I have taken into account all that he has had to say. Quite simply, the reason why you committed this offence, I am informed, was to try to help a friend. You had not realised the seriousness of what you were doing.
Through your plea of guilty, you have indicated your true remorse. You have also written a letter to the court indicating this remorse and the fact that you have learnt a lesson since being incarcerated since September 2013.
Your counsel has informed me that you are well aware that, for this offence, a fairly long period of imprisonment is appropriate. As I am sure you are well aware, trafficking in a dangerous drug is a very serious offence indeed. Youth or a clear record is not an exceptional circumstance. Your strongest mitigating factor is, of course, your plea of guilty.
In the case of Attorney General v Ching Kwok Hung [1991] 2 HKLR 125, that case sets out the appropriate sentences for trafficking in the drug "Ice". You were trafficking in 26.32 grammes of "Ice" which falls within the second bracket of which the amount of drugs between 10 to 70 grammes is within a range from 7 years to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Defendant, for the quantity of drugs you were trafficking in, I take a starting point of 7 years and 6 months’ imprisonment. Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty, that term is reduced to one of 5 years’ imprisonment, which you shall so serve.