Briefly what happened is this. Just after midnight on 26 July 2013, that is just over a year ago, police officers were carrying out an operation on the 3rd floor of 351 Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei. They heard knocking from the 2nd floor and a voice saying, “It is me.” They heard the grille being opened. The officers then rushed to the premises and intercepted you.
At that time, you were carrying a shoulder bag and standing at the door of those premises. You told the police that you had gone there to find a friend. On searching you, a transparent resealable plastic bag of suspected “ice” (exhibit 1) was found in your trousers pocket.
Upon arrest and caution for possession of dangerous drugs, you said you bought it for self consumption. You were in possession of $1,557.40 and two mobile phones. A further search of your shoulder bag was performed at the police station and six additional transparent resealable plastic bags of suspected “ice” (E2) were found concealed in an electric plug. You were therefore arrested for trafficking in dangerous drugs and cautioned.
You exercised your right to say nothing. Examination and analysis of the drugs showed them to be what is mentioned in the charge sheet. You were later interviewed under caution. In relation to the first exhibit, you claimed to have bought those drugs from Wong Siu Ming in a park in Sham Shui Po at about 8 o’clock that evening for $1,500. You claimed to be a drug addict and consumed 0.3 grammes of “ice” approximately twice a day.
You said you worked as a construction worker earning some $20,000 per month. You had gone to those premises to find friends to chat and to play cards.
In respect of the second amount of drugs, that is E2, you refused to say anything. The estimated total street value of E1 and E2 was found to be approximately $10,678.08.
Mr Cheng entered mitigation on your behalf. Prior to that you admitted to 14 previous convictions, six related to drugs, two of which were trafficking. In fact, you had been released from serving a substantial sentence for trafficking only months prior to the commission of this offence.
Your antecedent statement was largely agreed. You are aged 35, you were born on the Mainland and poorly educated only to Form 1. You had had various jobs in the past, including construction worker. You appear to be in good health, though you claim to be a drug addict of some 10 years. You are single and reside with your parents.
Very realistically, Mr Cheng conceded that there was little by way of mitigation, save for your plea of guilty. He said you had found the translation from the Mainland to Hong Kong to be difficult, that you had achieved little by way of education. He conceded that you had been released from your last sentence in mid-December of 2012, thereafter finding work as a casual construction worker. Whilst you were potentially able to earn $20,000 a month, you had not been able to do so.
He stressed your plea of guilty and that there had been communication with the prosecution regarding a possible giving of assistance. However, he conceded that this last matter would not effect any mitigation. He referred me to the case of HKSAR v Tam Yi Chun, number 2, Court of Appeal, Criminal Appeal number 524 of 2011, which slightly increased the starting points for trafficking in “ice”. Quite correctly, he indicated this fell within the range of 10 to 70 grammes, which is 7 to 11 years’ imprisonment.
On your behalf, he did request that you be given the full one-third discount. I indicated to him, and I will confirm that shortly, that I will, in fact, give you the full discount even though this plea was not at the first available opportunity.
Turning to the sentence, you are a man with a substantial criminal record and deep involvement in drugs over many years. Trafficking in dangerous drugs is always a serious matter. You had completed a sentence for such an offence only months prior to the commission of this offence.
I take in this case, a starting point of 8 years’ imprisonment. That will be reduced to 5 years and 4 months. That is 64 months for your plea of guilty. You will go to prison for 5 years and 4 months.