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HCCC328/2009
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 328 OF 2009
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HKSAR |
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Estela Abadines Fabrigaras |
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Date:
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17 February 2010 at 9.46 am
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Present:
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Mr David Chan, SPP of the Department of Justice,for HKSAR
Miss Juliana Chow, instructed by the Legal Aid Department, for the Accused
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Offence:
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Trafficking in a dangerous drug (販運危險藥物)
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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case
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COURT: The defendant, a 53-year-old Filipino female, pleaded guilty before me to trafficking in 642.92 grammes of heroin.
On 1 June of 2009, she was stopped by Customs officers at Hong Kong International Airport after arriving on a flight from Vietnam. Her luggage was searched, and eight tunics were found, each of which had 50 or so large buttons attached to it. One of the buttons was examined and found to contain heroin. Subsequently, more heroin was found in the 400‑odd buttons on the tunics, totalling the amount charged.
I take a starting point of sentence of 20 years' imprisonment. That is enhanced by 1 year to reflect the international dimension of the offence.
The only mitigation available to the defendant is her plea of guilty. She gets full credit for that, and her sentence is discounted to 14 years' imprisonment.
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