COURT: Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.
You have admitted on the 9th day of April 2013, at the staircase of the 9th floor of Hing Tat Mansion, 335 Ngau Tau Kok Road, you unlawfully trafficked in 111.97 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 110.59 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
On the day in question, police officers were conducting an anti-dangerous drug operation on the floor of that building. They intercepted you and you said you were going home to Room N. The search of your left trouser pocket produced one electronic scale and the drugs contained in the charge, in two plastic bags.
The estimated retail value of the drugs, as at April 2013, was $85,321.
You are aged 42, born in China and since 2004, have been working as a broker on Casino ships. Ms Liza Yip, your counsel, has mitigated fully and thoroughly on your behalf and I have taken into account all that she has had to say. I was informed that this house, or Room N, was not, in fact, where you lived as you were really living with your parents. Room N was rented by your friend and he had left a month prior to the end of the tenancy and allowed you to use it until then. You used these premises mainly for the consumption of drug taking.
I am informed that you have been a drug dependent or addict for some 10 years to “ice” and also take cannabis. You do not have any similar convictions related to drugs, though you have eight previous convictions arising out of four occasions.
Ms Yip informs me that you had part of the drugs for your own consumption. I am informed that you had intended to keep at least a third to a half for your own consumption, however you have elected not to give evidence and accept what the court finds for your own consumption.
I do not accept that a third to a half was for your own consumption because that would have been a very large quantity. The drugs were contained in two packets and you were going to a premises to take drugs, wherein at that time in those premises were three other people. I accept, however, that part of the drugs were for your own consumption.
Your largest mitigating factor, as Ms Yip has properly pointed out, is your plea of guilty. The case to which the guideline for sentencing in the quantity of drugs of “ice” is laid down is in Ching Kwok Hung. The bracket between 70 and 300 grammes of “ice” would be a term of between 10 to 14 years’ imprisonment.
Defendant, given the quantity of drugs that you had in your possession for the purpose of trafficking, I take a starting point of 10 years and 6 months’ imprisonment, or otherwise, 126 months.
As I accept that part of the drugs were for your own consumption, I reduce that starting point by 10 per cent and I take a starting point of 113 months.
Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty, I reduce that term by one-third and you shall be sentenced to 6 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.