COURT: Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to one offence of possession of dangerous drugs, namely 13.15 grammes of powder containing 10.5 grammes of ketamine, and to one offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs, namely 0.24 kilogrammes of powder (240 grammes of powder) containing 0.18 kilogrammes of ketamine (180 grammes).
Briefly what happened is this:
At about 0122 hours on 28 September of last year, a police sergeant and a police constable in an unmarked police car observed your vehicle parked outside the Bank of China on Kau Yuk Road, New Territories. You alighted and went into the bank. The police approached the car. PC7441 opened the driver’s door and found three persons therein. You turned to the car, being disqualified from driving, you were unable to produce your driving licence when required to do so. A search of your person revealed nothing suspicious.
The car was then searched and a red cloth bag hanging from the indicator lever, which contained a plastic bag, inside of which was a white crystalline substance, suspected to be dangerous drugs, was found; that is Charge 1. You were cautioned and replied, “Inside the bag is ‘K-Chai’ for my own consumption’.”
At 0154 hours a police officer found a black plastic bag containing a transparent, resealable plastic bag of white crystalline substance in the boot under a jacket; it was the dangerous drugs, the subject of the 2nd charge, that is the charge of trafficking. Under caution you said, “I have bought the car for one week only. I don’t know why there is a bag of thing in my car. I have never seen the bag of thing.” The officer seized two mobile phones from your person and another from inside the car. At the police station you exercised your right to silence.
The retail value of all the dangerous drugs seized was some $30,884.
As you have admitted, you possessed the dangerous drugs in Charge 1 for your own consumption and that the dangerous drugs in Charge 2 were for the purpose of trafficking.
You admit to four previous convictions, three involving dangerous drugs, one of which was trafficking. You also admit to two subsequent convictions for motoring offences arising from this incident.
You are 29 years of age, single, educated to secondary level and residing with your parents. Prior to the commission of the offence, I am told you were employed as an air-conditioning engineer, earning some $20,000 per month. You were released from prison a year ago at the time of the offence. You then relapsed into the use of dangerous drugs and found yourself involved in trafficking out of greed. It seems that the dangerous drugs in the boot of your car were to be collected from your home at some later stage.
On your behalf, Mr Ng expresses remorse. He tells me that your mother and elder brother are here to support you today and he put before me a letter that you have written. Of course, the main point of mitigation is your plea of guilty, that is your acceptance of responsibility for what you have done.
The following sentences will therefore be imposed:
On the 1st charge of possession of dangerous drugs, I take a starting point of 15 months, reduced to 10 months for your plea of guilty.
The trafficking in dangerous drugs is within the range of 6 to 9 years’ imprisonment, given the quantity and I therefore take a starting point of 7 and a half years, reduced to 5. You will therefore go to prison 5 years on that offence.
To apply the principle of totality, these two sentences will be served concurrently. That means in total you will go to prison for a period of 5 years.