Koh Bak Kiang v Public Prosecutor

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Wong Keen Onn
• Judgment Date: 31 January 2008
• Neutral Citation: [2008] SGDC 18
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Published date: 14 March 2008
• Year: 2008
• Plaintiff Counsel: Francis Ng (Deputy Public Prosecutor)
• Defendant Counsel: Paul (Sim Wong LLC)
• Citation: [2008] SGDC 18

31 January 2008

District Judge Wong Keen Onn:

Background

The accused, Koh Bak Kiang, pleaded guilty to and was convicted of the following three charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act (‘MDA’).

“Amended First charge DAC 41589/2007”(Exhibit C1A)

You, Koh Bak Kiang, Male/31 years, date of birth, 23 January 1976, NRIC NO: S7601286E are charged that you, on the 4^th April 2007 at about 2.22 p.m., at 02-01 Roxy Square carpark, Singapore, did traffic in a controlled drug specified in a Class A listed in The First Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Act (Cap 185) to wit, by transporting Forty-Five (45) packets of granular/powdery substances, which was pulverized and homogenized into a powdery substance, analyzed and found to contain 14.99 grams of Diamorphine, using vehicle SDH 7971L, from Blk 209, Serangoon Central to Katong Plaza, without any authorization under the said Act or the Regulations made thereunder and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 5(1)(a) and punishable under Section 33 of the Misuse of Drugs Act Chapter 185”.

Amended Third charge DAC 26073/2007”(Exhibit C3A)

You, Koh Bak Kiang, Male/31 years, date of birth, 23 January 1976, NRIC NO: S7601286E are charged that you, on the 4^th day of April 2007 at about 4.05 p.m., at 10 B Lor Marzuki, did have in your possession a controlled drug specified in Class A of the First Schedule of the Misuse of Drugs Act, Chapter 185, to wit, a packet of crystalline substance weighing 24.80 grams, which was pulverized and homogenized, analysed and found to contain a total of 20.70 grams of Ketamine, at the said place, without any authorization under the said Act and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 8(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act, Cap 185 and punishable under Section 33 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, Cap 185.

And further, that you, before the commission of the said offence, that is to say, on 17^th August 2005, have been convicted in District Court 4 (DAC 36610/2005), Singapore for an offence of possession of a controlled drug under Section 8(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act, Chapter 185, of which conviction has not been set aside, and thereby liable to be punishable under Section 33 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, Cap 185”.

“Amended Seventh charge DAC 41588/2007”(Exhibit C7A)

You, Koh Bak Kiang, Male/31 years, date of birth, 23 January 1976, NRIC NO: S7601286E are charged that you, on or about 2 April 2007, did engage in a conspiracy with one Chia Choon Leng to commit an offence of trafficking in a controlled drug, to wit, 14.99 grams of diamorphine, a Class A controlled drug listed in The First Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Act (Cap 185), and in pursuance of the conspiracy, and in order to the doing of that thing, an act took place, to wit, you, acting on the instructions of the accomplice delivered a brown envelope containing 14.99 grams of diamorphine to one Goh Joon Fong at the ‘Skin Design Tattoo Shop’ located at #01-09 Katong Plaza, Singapore on or about 4 April 2007, which offence was committed in consequences of the abetment, and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 5(1)(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act (Cap 185) read with Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224) and punishable under Section 33 of the Misuse of Drugs Act”.

2 Upon his conviction on these three charges, the accused consented to take into consideration for sentencing one charge of trafficking in 0.22 grams of ketamine under s 5(1)(a) of the MDA, two charges of unauthorized possession of two types of Class A controlled drug, punishable with enhanced punishment under s 8(a) read with s 33 of the MDA and one charge of possession of utensils used in consumption with consumption of ketamine under s 9 of the MDA. The accused was sentenced to 23 years’ imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane for the trafficking charge in DAC 41589/07, 2 years’ imprisonment for the consumption charge in DAC 26073/07 and 23 years’ imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane for the abetment of drug trafficking charge in DAC 41588/07. Two of the sentences in DAC 41589/07 and DAC 26073/07 were ordered to run consecutively, giving a total of 25 years’ imprisonment with effect from 5 April 2007 and 24 strokes of the cane. I now set out the reasons for the sentence imposed.

Facts of the Case

Events in the commission of the offence in DAC 41589 / 07

3 The Statement of Facts, which the Accused admitted to without qualifications, revealed that on 4 April 2007, at about 2.22 p.m., a party of officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (‘CNB’) arrested the accused outside unit #02-01 of Katong Plaza, Singapore, on suspicion of having committed an offence of trafficking in a controlled drug. After the accused was arrested, he was escorted to his car SDH 7971 L (‘the vehicle’) which was parked at the car park of Katong Plaza. A search of the vehicle was conducted in the accused’s presence and a blue ‘Bossini’ plastic bag was retrieved from the vehicle.

4 The blue ‘Bossini’ plastic bag was found to contain a clear plastic bag, in which were 20 packets containing a granular/powdery substance, and a bundle of 25 packets containing a granular/powdery substance. All the packets were seized as case exhibits; the 20 packets in the clear plastic bag were marked “E1A1” while the 25 packets in the bundle were marked “E2B1”. Exhibits “E1A1” and E2B1” were sent to the Health Sciences Authority (‘HSA’) for analysis on 9 April 2007. The exhibits marked “E1A1” and “E2B1”, weighing a total of 321.9 grams, were analysed and found to contain not less than 14.99 grams of diamorphine, a controlled drug listed in Class A of the First Schedule to the MDA.

5 Investigations revealed that on 4 April 2007, the accused had, using the vehicle, transported the blue ‘Bossini’ plastic bag containing not less than 14.99 grams of diamorphine without authorization from the car park of Blk 209 Serangoon Central to the car park of Katong Plaza, intending to subsequently deliver the diamorphine to an unknown location.

Commission of offences in DAC 41588/07 and DAC 26073/07

6 As for the offence in DAC 41588/07, investigations revealed that on or about 2 April 2007 (2 days earlier), the accomplice, one Chia Choon Leng, NRIC No. S1719705Z had handed a brown envelope containing the diamorphine to the accused at the vicinity of Serangoon Central and instructed the accused to deliver the diamorphine to one Goh Joon Fong at the Skin Design Tattoo Shop. After the meeting with the accomplice, the accused kept the brown envelope in his vehicle.

7 On or about 4 April 2007, between 1.00 a.m. to 2.00 a.m., the accused, acting on the accomplice’s instructions, delivered without authorization the brown envelope (which was subsequently found to contain the 14.99 grams of diamorphine) to Goh Joon Fong at the Skin Design Tattoo Shop and placed it inside the drawer of the table in the lobby of the shop.

8 On the same day (4 April 2007) at about 2.22 p.m., another party of CNB officers raided the ‘Skin Design Tattoo Shop’ located at #01-09 of Katong Plaza and conducted a search of the premises. In the course of the search, the said brown envelope was recovered by the CNB officers from the drawer of a table located in the lobby of the premises. The brown envelope was found to contain a clear plastic bag, in which were 26 packets containing a granular/powdery substance, as well as 5 packets containing a granular/powdery substance. All the packets were seized as case exhibits; the 26 packets in the clear plastic bag were marked “A1B1” while the 5 packets in the bundle were marked “A2”. The exhibits “A1B1” and “A2”, weighing a total of 220.66 grams, were analysed by HSA and found to contain not less than 14.99 grams of diamorphine, a controlled drug listed in Class A of the First Schedule to the MDA.

9 The accused had accordingly engaged in a conspiracy with the accomplice to commit an offence of trafficking in 14.99 grams of diamorphine and pursuant to the conspiracy, and in order to the doing of that thing, he delivered the diamorphine to the said Goh Joon Fong at the Skin Design Tattoo Shop, and had therefore committed an offence under s 5(1)(a) of the MDA r/w s 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224).

10 Following the search of the accused’s vehicle at Katong Plaza, the accused was escorted to his rented premises at 10B Lorong Marzuki, where another search was conducted by CNB officers. The CNB officers found a white plastic bag containing a packet of crystalline substance in the premises and it was seized as a case exhibit and marked “H1A”. Exhibit “H1A”, weighing 24.80 grams, was analysed by the HSA to contain a total of 20.70 grams of ketamine, a controlled drug listed in Class A of the First Schedule to the MDA.

11 In the course of investigations, the accused admitted to possession of the ketamine without authorization under the MDA and has...