The judge said he was imposing a 'high sentence' yesterday in the first major case to use controversial guidelines which slashed penalties for dealing in the rave drug Ecstasy.
But the eight-year jail term he passed on trafficker Ho was many years less than the sentence Ho could have expected before last month's Court of Appeal judgment.
Deputy Judge Lugar-Mawson had been told by Mr Mitchell-Heggs, defending, that the pills Ho was caught with were 'benign and peaceful'.
But the judge said the drug MBDB, which is similar to Ecstasy, was a substance of abuse 'commonly sold to gullible youngsters in nightclubs and bars so that they can get high'.
Ho had been prepared to use young people as couriers to bring the drug into Hong Kong from Holland, exposing them to the risk of long jail terms. 'That is why your sentence will be a high one,' he said.
The judge took a starting point of 12 years and reduced it to eight for the guilty plea.