HKSAR v. Lau Tin Sing

HCCC 126/2014

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 126 OF 2014

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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT: Mr Lau, Lau Tin-sing, you have pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 175.42 grammes of a mixture containing 134.56 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.

You have admitted the Summary of Facts prepared by the prosecution and I will read out the Summary of Facts which you have admitted. On 1 August 2013, at about 2105 hours, police officers from the District Intelligence Section, Central Police Station, started laying ambush in the staircase area between the 1st and 2nd floors of Hong Ning Building, 162-166 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon (“the premises”).

At 2118 hours, the police officers saw the defendant approaching Flat A of the 1st floor of the premises. The defendant stood outside the flat, waiting, whilst another man was seen opening the metal gate from inside the flat. At this point the operation turned overt and officers rushed towards the two men.

The defendant was intercepted. Police officers showed their warrant cards. The defendant was searched and four condoms containing seven packets containing a total of 175.42 grammes of a mixture containing 134.56 grammes of heroin hydrochloride were found inside his trousers’ pockets. Further, cash in the sum of HK$1,194, renminbi 964.50 and two mobile phones were found on him.

The defendant was arrested. In a subsequently held video-recorded interview between 2012 and 2048 hours on the same day, the defendant claimed that the dangerous drugs found on him were given to him by a man named ‘Hung’ earlier. The defendant knew that it was heroin. The defendant was told by Hung to place the drugs in the corridor of the 1st floor of Hong Ning Building. He would be paid a reward of HK$1,500 for doing so. He used one of the phones seized from him to contact Hung.

In August 2013, the value of the drugs seized from the defendant could have sold at street level to drug abusers for HK$150,335, that is 175.42 grammes times HK$857 per gramme.

The defendant now admits and accepts that he possessed the dangerous drug seized for the purpose of trafficking.

According to the sentencing guidelines in respect of trafficking in heroin established in The Queen v Lau Tak Ming & Ors [1990] 2 HKLR 370, trafficking in 50 to 200 grammes of heroin should be punishable with 8 to 12 years’ imprisonment.

Here, the quantity involved was 134.56 grammes and the appropriate sentence should be, according to your counsel, between 10 to 10½ years.

Your counsel has produced a letter from a Christian Association which states that you are wholeheartedly remorseful for your crime and your counsel has said everything that can possibly be said for you.

However, with this kind of serious offence, personal circumstances will rarely help in mitigating sentence. Moreover, you have a number of criminal records, six in all, and three of them were related to dangerous drugs. The latest ones show that there was one in October 1986 for possession of dangerous drugs for the purpose of unlawful trafficking, for which you were sent to gaol for 5 years, and a similar one in April 2004 for which you were sentenced to imprisonment for 9 years and 4 months.

You must have fully realised that trafficking will result in a long sentence when caught.

Apart from your guilty plea, and I also accept, as stated in the letter from the Christian Association, that you are truly remorseful, I am not able to see any other mitigating factor that can reduce your sentence. What I can do is to adopt the lower point as a starting point, which is 10 years’ imprisonment.

I will give you the normal one-third discount for your guilty plea, and using 10 years as the starting point as reduced by one-third for your guilty plea, the result will be 6 years and 8 months’ imprisonment and that is the sentence I pass on you.