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| The former helper was sentenced on Oct 25 in the High Court. |
A 37-year-old Filipina former domestic helper has been
ordered locked up for seven years and eight months by a High Court judge after
pleading guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
Josephine Felizardo showed no emotion as Judge Poon Siu-tung
read out his sentence on her on Friday, Oct. 25.
Felizardo a mother of four who was on recognizance, appeared
in court with Charlotte Marie Borrill, a British-Indonesian woman aged 20, on related
charges.
Felizardo was charged with drug trafficking following her
arrest in a police search on a residential unit at 119 Shanghai St in Yaumatei on Apr 28
last year.
Borrill, as the registered occupant of the flat, was also
arrested and charged for allowing the premises to be used for drug trafficking.
Both pleaded guilty to the charges on separate occasions,
but their cases were consolidated when they were transferred to the High Court,
the prosecutor said.
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Felizardo was arrested at about noon on Apr 28 last year
when police armed with a search warrant entered the flat and saw her sit on a bed
and put her right hand on a bag which was found to contain 23.09 grams of “ice”,
27.9g of cocaine and 18g of ketamine.
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| Some 23 grams of "ice" similar to this heap was seized from Felizardo. |
The police also found two bottles with traces of drugs and $80,400
cash in a handbag belonging to Felizardo.
Felizardo told the officers Borrill owned the flat and she was
just there for the night. She said she did not know two other people seen
visiting the unit before the raid.
Borrill told the police her father owned the flat and that
he let her stay there for the three months before the raid. She said she knew the
two bottles had traces of drugs but that she was not aware narcotics were being
trafficked in the unit.
The prosecution said Felizardo was convicted in December
2015 for breach of condition of stay for which she was sentenced to a six-week
jail term suspended for three years. She later applied for recognizance.
Her trafficking offense took place while she was on
suspended sentence.
In mitigation, the defense lawyer said Felizardo came here to
work as a domestic helper in 2014 but was terminated in 2015. She overstayed,
was arrested and convicted. She has a husband in the Philippines and four children who
are all studying.
Judge Poon gave Felizardo a discount for her guilty plea,
and ordered that her six-week sentence for breach of condition to be served
concurrently with that for drug trafficking.
At the recommendation of Borrill’s lawyer Kamlesh Sadhawni,
the judge postponed the sentencing of Borrill until Nov 1 pending her
sentencing on a separate charge of drug possession.
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