Hgh Court cuts Pinay’s sentence in drug case

 

The High Court, where the Court of Appeal holds sessions

The Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence of a Filipina asylum seeker who appealed after being convicted in 2022 of attempted drug trafficking for claiming a shipment of 4,924 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride (ice  or shabu) worth $2.7 million during a controlled delivery watched by Customs officers.

The sentence of Nellie Pangosban, 40 years old, was reduced by one year and five months to 16 years and five months, in a decision handed down Tuesday (Oct. 13) by acting Chief Justice Andrew Macrae and Justice of Appeals Kevin Zervos.

The new sentence was in accordance with new sentencing guidelines set in March 2025. “As has been repeatedly made clear, if the revised guidelines are found to be applicable to an appellant, the Court is required to sentence afresh…,’ the decision said.

Pangosban pleaded guilty before a magistrate on August 1, 2022 to a charge of attempted trafficking in a dangerous drug involving 4.960 kilos of a crystalline solid containing 4.924 kilos of ice, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance and section 159G of the Crimes Ordinance.

Basahin ang detalye!

She confirmed her plea on August 1, 2023 before Deputy High Court Judge Douglas Yau and was sentenced to 17 years and 10 months’ imprisonment, consisting of a starting point of 26 to 30 years’ imprisonment, enhanced by 6 months for the aggravating factor of the appellant’s status as a Form 8 recognizance holder, and was reduced by one-third for the appellant’s guilty plea.

After her appeal, her sentence was reduced to 16 years and 5 months’ imprisonment, consisting of a starting point of 23 years and 11 months’ imprisonment, which was enhanced by 9 months and reduced by one-third for her guilty plea.

Explaining the longer enhancement, the two justices explained that committing “a serious criminal offence while permitted to remain in Hong Kong on recognizance constitutes, in a general sense, a breach of trust, involving a grave abuse of the city’s hospitality and a breach of conditional liberty attaching to the status of a claimant while awaiting the outcome of his or her immigration or torture claim.”