Director of Public Prosecutions v Cheuk

[2016] VCC 102

Pages 1 - 5   IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised (Not) Restricted  Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 15-01832

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

LONG SANG CHEUK

---

JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE M.P. BOURKE
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	16 February 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Cheuk
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 102

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---

Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms R. Verdon
For the Offender	Mr Maguire

HIS HONOUR:

1Long Sang Cheuk, you are to be sentenced for one charge of importing in a commercial quantity the border controlled drug, methylamphetamine.  The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

2You pleaded guilty before me on 5 February 2016.  When interviewed by police on 27 June 2015 you at first falsely denied the offending.  Part way through the interview you abandoned that somewhat untenable position and made admissions.  You thereby admitted the offence, but minimised some aspects, including,  I would find, your knowledge of what the importation was.

3There was not a complete confession.  However your admissions were significant and helpful to the investigation. 

4The committal went by hand-up brief after which you pleaded guilty.  The matter was then listed for plea in this court, now only about eight months after the offence.

5You receive the benefit of your early plea of guilty and the level of cooperation that history of the proceedings shows.  Your plea and cooperation have facilitated the interests of justice and I accept that you are remorseful.

6At your plea hearing, also on 5 February, Ms. Verdan for the Crown tendered a written Crown opening and also provided to me a short schedule of Commonwealth cases in broadly similar importation cases.  Mr Maguire, for you, tendered medical documents related to your mother's health, certificates related to rehabilitation programs undertaken by you in remand custody and a number of letters of character reference.

7Mr Maguire also provided a written outline of submissions on sentence. 

8The Crown opening, which is tendered as Exhibit A, comprehensively states the circumstances of your offence.  My own summary may therefore be short.

9You are a 23 year old Chinese national who travelled from Hong Kong to Melbourne on 8 May 2015.  In the days previous in Hong Kong you had agreed to assist an importation of methylamphetamine to Melbourne. 
Mr Maguire described circumstances of financial difficulty arising out of borrowings to help finance a friend's wedding.  Your mother had been compromised by your debt.

10Your role in the importation was to wait in Melbourne, arrange suitable accommodation, to collect the consignment and then deconstruct and hold it for further collection there.  The house was in Preston.  Between early May and late June you were in regular contact by text with those in Hong Kong.  You were under their directions.

11Part of your job was to locate an appropriate shop or shops selling toys and like products.  This was for initial delivery.  The consignment arrived by air on 26 June and,  as arranged,  was delivered to a board game store in Swanston Street, Melbourne.  There were 11 boxes of Chinese toys.

12On 26 and 27 June you attended without success at the store on several occasions.  There was also contact with Hong Kong.  Staff at the store had become suspicious and on the morning of 27 June discovered some of the drug concealed in one of the toys.  Police were notified and you were arrested at the store when you attended again that afternoon.

13The consignment contained in three of the boxes (43 toys) 5.94 kilograms of methylamphetamine, at purity of 80.1 per cent.  The total pure weight is
4.758 kilograms.  This is significantly in excess of the legislative threshold quantity for commercial quantity, which is 750 grams.  The Crown opening states a wholesale value of about $1.2 million and street value of about $5.9 million. 

14Mr Maguire put on your behalf that you were under orders from Hong Kong and that your knowledge of the nature and scale of the importation developed only during your time in Australia.  He argued that your state of knowledge that you were assisting drug importation was that of recklessness.  This is defined in the relevant Commonwealth legislation.  One finds it difficult to believe that you did not at least come to realise that you were collecting a consignment of drugs of some substantial size.  I do not accept that you did not know that.

15Your expectation of reward was about $20,000 HK, apparently beyond your expenses here.  You told police in interview that you received $1500 AU upon leaving Hong Kong and were sent $2000 a month after that.  $20,000 HK is about $3725 in Australian currency.

16As stated, you are aged 23.  You were 22 at the time of offending.  You have no prior criminal history.  You are an only child who was born and raised in the new territory region of Hong Kong.  Your parents divorced when you were 13 and you have only sporadic contact with your father.  Your mother awaits surgery for a tumour in her arm which is thought to be benign.

17You left school at 16 and have since been employed in a number of areas, including as a kitchen hand, in sales, construction work and security.  You have limited English and are socially and culturally isolated in prison.  You have been in remand custody since arrest in June 2015.

18It is highly likely that upon completion of the minimum term I shall impose you will be paroled and deported to Hong Kong. 

19As stated, Mr Maguire pointed to a context of financial difficulty for your decision to offend.  He stated you to be in your role subordinate to strict and at times threating direction from Hong Kong.   In my experience of such cases these are not unusual features. 

20This is self-evidently very serious offending.  The consignment was, as stated, of significant scale.  Your role, whilst not near the top of the operation's hierarchy, was important and your involvement ran for almost two months.  Drug importation, drug use and its harms are seen to be major community problems.  In a case such as this the sentencing considerations of deterrence, your moral culpability and the need to express condemnation of the offending are important.  General deterrence is a dominant sentencing purpose.  The proportionate punishment here is a prison sentence of substantial length.

21I have considered mitigating and moderating factors.  They include the following.  One, your early plea of guilty and cooperation. 

22Two, your personal circumstances.  These include the additional burden of imprisonment given isolation from those who support you.  This however is reduced in importance by the fact that you came to Australia for the purpose of the offence.  Similarly, the likelihood of deportation plays a lesser role.  You should receive a head and minimum term appropriate,  given the relevant factors.

23Three, you have no prior criminal history.  At 23 you are still a young man and you have family support.  You should be seen to have prospects for rehabilitation.  Specific deterrence, while still relevant given the seriousness of the offence, may be seen as less important than general deterrence.

24Four, I need to consider your role and the circumstances of and leading to your offending. 

25Whilst I take into account the moderating factors, in the case of such offending as this general deterrence remains the paramount sentencing purpose and I must sentence you in a way to meet that.

26As raised this morning,  to some extent such moderating personal matters can be considered in setting the appropriate minimum term before eligibility for parole.  I approach that with some care given the approach to that matter in this jurisdiction over years.  As stated, these matters were raised briefly this morning with counsel.

27After taking into account what I see to be the relevant matters I sentence you as follows.  On one charge of importation in a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug you are sentenced to eight years imprisonment.  I set a minimum term of four years and eight months before eligibility for parole.

28Under s.18 of the Victorian Sentencing Act I declare 234 days of pre-sentence detention.  Had you not pleaded guilty I would have imposed a sentence of ten years with a minimum term of seven years.  What are the other matters I need to address?  Take a seat please.

29MS VERDON:  Nothing from me, Your Honour.

30HIS HONOUR:  What about forensic samples and the like?

31MS VERDON:  No.

32HIS HONOUR:  We discussed that.

33MR MAGUIRE:  Nothing from us either, Your Honour.

34HIS HONOUR:  Good.  Mr Cheuk can be taken into custody now.  Thank you for your assistance this morning, Mr Tan.

‑ ‑ ‑