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 have admitted that on 25 November 2013, at Fu Kin Street
Car Park, Sha Tin, you unlawfully trafficked in 1.67 grammes of a solid containing 0.28 grammes of cocaine, 187.91 grammes of a solid containing 148.46 grammes of ketamine, and 159.70 grammes of a powder containing 107.95 grammes of ketamine.
In total, the purity of ketamine is 256.41 grammes.
On 25 November 2013 at about 5.15 pm you were alone driving a private car at the Fu Kin Street Car Park in Sha Tin when you were stopped by police officers.
A body search was conducted on you, and found in your left trouser pocket was a bag containing the cocaine.
Under caution, you admitted that you intended to sell the packet of cocaine to others.
Subsequently, a search of the vehicle was conducted.Inside a black plastic bag in the glove compartment were found the two bags of drugs containing ketamine; a transparent zip-lock plastic bag containing 30 re-sealable transparent plastic bags; a white plastic spoon; and a digital scale with a battery.
You admitted under caution that you intended to sell the ketamine in order to earn money.
Defendant, your counsel, Mr James McGowan, has made full and thorough mitigation on your behalf and I have taken into account all that he has had to say.
You are 25 years of age and have five previous convictions. None are similar. You do, however, have three related to drugs being two of possession of dangerous drugs in 2008 and 2009 to which you were fined and given a suspended sentence. In 2010 that was for an offence of smoking and injecting dangerous drugs, and on that occasion you were sentenced to the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre.
Mr McGowan has informed me that upon your release from DATC you invested in a business which was a boutique but, unfortunately, you never made any money and, in fact, lost in this investment and incurred debts of some $300,000. It was as a result of this pressing debt to be repaid which led you to commit the present offence.
I can see that you have a very supportive family. They have been pointed out in court to me. Your father, brother, mother and sister are here in court, as well as your girlfriend whom you intend to marry. I have heard about the very sad and sorry state of your father having had his leg amputated as a result of him suffering from a disease. Nevertheless, he is here in court in his wheelchair supporting you.
Mr McGowan has rightly referred me to the tariff case in support of the sentence for ketamine ofHii Siew Cheng. The amount of drugs that you have been trafficking in falls within the fourth bracket of an amount between 50 to 300 grammes of which a sentence of between 6 to 9 years’ imprisonment after trial would be appropriate.
This is the amount of drugs I take into account of upon sentencing you. I shall disregard the very small amount of cocaine of 0.28 grammes. You admitted this offence from the very outset as soon as you were arrested, and you maintained your remorse when you entered your plea of guilty before this court.
For the present amount of ketamine involved, had I convicted you after trial I would have taken a starting point of 8 years’ imprisonment. Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty, that is giving you the one-third usual discount, and as a result of the special circumstances on the papers which justifies a lenient view to be taken of the facts, I sentence you to 4 years and 5 months’ imprisonment.