HKSAR v. Chu Wa Sum
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DCCC 40/2015 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION CRIMINAL CASE NO. 40 OF 2015 -----------------------------------
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---------------------------- Reasons for Sentence ---------------------------- Charge and facts 1.The Defendant pleads guilty to trafficking in a dangerous drug. 2.At about 6:40 pm on 11 May 2014, the police approached the Defendant, who held something in his right hand and kept watching his back in a suspicious manner, outside Central Pier 5, Man Kwong Street, Central for enquiries. He tried to walk away and struggled. When he was stopped and searched, his right hand was holding a tissue packet containing 4 transparent re-sealable plastic bags (each later found to contain a similar quantity of ketamine, in total 53.77 grammes of a powder containing 44.23 grammes of ketamine). 3.The police arrested him for possession of a dangerous drug. He had a mobile phone with him. 4.In subsequent video-record interviews under caution on the following day, he said that:
5.CCTV footages of the ferry company showed that he had taken a ferry from Cheung Chau to Central at about 5:00 pm that day. 6.CCTV footages of the McDonald’s Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui showed that he had visited the restaurant at about 5:58 pm that day and talked to a male outside the toilet. He entered the toilet alone twice. 7.The estimated street value of the ketamine was around $6,775.02. Mitigation 8.The Defendant is 23 years of age, educated up to F. 2 level. He lived with his parents in Cheung Chau. He has a younger sister studying in America. He had 2 previous records for possession of a dangerous drug in 2007 and 2009 respectively. 9.Because of his ketamine addiction, he has been suffering from a shrunken bladder. There is a letter from a medical doctor in support of this condition. 10.There is a letter dated 12 May 2014 from Hong Kong Christian Service which stated that he had shown some interest in its drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation programme but failed to contact it for some time. Coincidentally he was arrested by the police for the present case on the same date of the letter. 11.His own mitigation letter expressed his remorse and frustration as a burden to his family. 12.His counsel submits that he worked as a part-time construction worker at the time of arrest and no longer in an audio visual company. His income was $10,000 per month. Not only did he fail to make contribution to his family but instead he took money from it. For the ketamine in question, he had no preset idea of how much was for trafficking as opposed to self-consumption. He would probably consume about 1 gramme per day. He had snorted some of it in McDonald’s toilet. He did not feel well and started to vomit before the police approached him. Sentencing guidelines 13.As laid down in HKSAR v Hii Siew Cheng [2007] 1 HKLRD 1, traffickers of ketamine of 10 – 50 grammes shall be sentenced to 4 – 6 years. Sentencing this Defendant 14.There is some basis to suggest that part of the drug was for self-consumption. However, with the drug estimated at over $6,700 bought at $3,000, there were all the attractions for him to sell the major part of it to reap a ready profit, and keep just a small part of it enough to last until re-stock. I take 5 years as the starting point. One-third off for his guilty plea with no other effective mitigating factors, his sentence is 3 years and 4 months.
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