In sentencing, Principal Magistrate Ian Candy said: 'I'm going to impose a small fine, but probably the more severe penalty is now you have a criminal record for this offence ... if you're convicted again, you can expect to be treated more harshly.'

Fok is the son of Ian Fok Chun-wan, who is managing director of Henry Fok Estates, the business founded by his 81-year-old father. Henry Fok is a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Fok's lawyer, Cheng Hua SC, submitted six letters of mitigation to the court, including one from Eric Li Ka-cheung, the former legislator who represented the accounting sector and is a personal friend of Ian Fok.

The other letters were from a house master and badminton coach at Millfield School, the boarding school in Somerset, Britain, which Fok attended. They said in the letters that Fok was a law-abiding student with 'a dry sense of humour'.

There was also an acceptance letter from the president of a university in London, where Fok will start studying next month.

Fok was arrested on July 11, after police searched him at the junction of Victoria and Sassoon roads in Western, near his home.

Police found the cannabis in a metal case inside Fok's trousers pocket. They found a plastic bottle fitted with a straw intended for smoking cannabis in his travel bag.

Under caution, Fok admitted to police he had made the water pipe to smoke the drug and that a friend had given him the 'grass'. He said he would not smoke cannabis again and asked for a second chance.

More than a dozen photographers were waiting for Fok's arrival in court yesterday.