Two women caught with a heroin haul were given reduced sentences yesterday when a judge accepted they had found the drugs and were trying to return them to their owner.
Deputy Judge Gerard Muttrie took the rare step of departing from sentencing guidelines, which would have left the women facing jail terms of up to 12 years.
Tsui Siu-lin, 29, and Chan Wai-ling, 28, found themselves in a dilemma when they went to collect a small amount of heroin for their own use from a pusher's hiding place.
Instead of finding the small quantity they had ordered, they were confronted with six large bags containing heroin weighing 91 grams.
They feared the supplier might hold them responsible if they left the heroin in the hiding-place - behind railings in Kwun Tong - and it later disappeared.
So they picked it up intending to return it to him. But as they walked away from the hiding place they were intercepted by police.
Tsui and Chan were jailed for six years for trafficking in heroin. The judge said they could only have been convicted on the basis that the jury accepted what they had told the police about how they came into possession of the drugs.
