Hong Kong doctor found with 20 grams of meth jailed for 10 months on drug charges
Counsel says Eric Chan used drugs to cope with ‘unbearable workload’ from pandemic, but fails to convince judge over non-custodial sentence
A Hong Kong obstetrician who kept more than 20 grams (0.7 ounces) of crystal meth in a hotel room he shared with his boyfriend has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for five drug offences.
Counsel for Eric Chan Ho-lam, 32, on Friday asked Magistrate Kestrel Lam Tsz-hong at Kowloon City Court to impose a non-custodial sentence, saying his client held a respectable job and contributed to society by practising medicine.
The lawyer said Chan had been using drugs to cope with the “unbearable workload” since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, and he had a good character as well as a solid family and educational background.
But Lam rejected the defence submission.
“[These] could only be mitigation factors. However, if the court gave mercy [to the defendant] based on these factors and handed down an inappropriate sentence that was not in line with the appellate courts [guideline], it would have deviated from the [legal] principle,” the magistrate said.
The court heard Chan was unfit to serve his sentence in a drug addiction treatment centre because he was not an addict, even though he told police that he had been using drugs for the past three to four years.
