COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs, namely 15.83 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 15.51 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride and 249.57 grammes of cannabis in herbal form.
The defendant, on the 14 May 2013 at about 8 o’clock in the evening, was seen leaving his home and he was intercepted and in his trouser pocket was found the quantity of “ice”. 10 packets of the herbal cannabis were also found in a bag carried by the defendant.
The defendant under caution claimed that all the drugs were for his own consumption and that he had only bought them 15 minutes prior to his arrest and that he was leaving the flat because he discovered that he had left something on the street and he therefore left the flat shortly after he had entered it.
The retail value of the “ice” was HK$11,919 and the retail value of the cannabis was about HK$33,000.
The defendant is aged 47 and has some eight previous convictions and two are relating to dangerous drugs.
The defendant was supposed to have started the trial today on this count but he pleaded guilty. Although the plea was not at the earliest opportunity, however, I will give him the full one-third discount for his plea.
It is said in mitigation by Ms Ma that the defendant is suffering from liver cancer and that he did take some of the drugs for his condition.
It is a fact that for trafficking in methamphetamine hydrochloride, or “ice”, the Court of Appeal has laid down guidelines in the case of Ching Kwok Hung which is in [1991] 2 HKLR 125 and the sentence recommended is that for trafficking in between 10 to 70 grammes of ice, a sentence of 7 to 10 years’ imprisonment after trial is recommended.
Here the quantity of “ice” is 15.1 grammes and, taken together with the quantity of herbal cannabis found, I consider that an appropriate starting point of sentence would be one of 7 and a half years. I adopt, therefore, a starting point of 7 and a half years and, giving the defendant the full one-third discount, would reduce the sentence to 60 months.
I would give a further discount of 5 months in view of the fact that the defendant claimed that a small part of the drugs were for his own consumption. I take this because the defendant is unemployed and he has no visible means of support apart from his selling the drugs to fund his own drug addiction and also, as counsel pointed out, his last drug conviction was some nine years ago, so it does not seem like he is a person who has a serious drug addiction. I did invite the defence to call evidence to persuade me to give a larger discount in view of the fact of self-consumption, but this was declined.
In view of the above matters which I have stated, I consider that I would reduce the sentence by 5 months would be appropriate.
So the defendant will go to prison for 55 months, which would be 4 years and 7 months.