Bundoora: Kin Ping Keung deals heroin armed with slingshot
He worked in drug counselling for a decade, now he’s been caught dealing drugs armed with weapons and driving on heroin. And the Bundoora business owner told the police who stopped him that he was “a pretty safe driver”.
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A man who spent a decade working in drug counselling has repeatedly been caught dealing drugs, with police finding him armed with a slingshot and a baton during his latest arrest.
Kin Ping Keung was also caught driving high on drugs before he told police he was “a pretty safe driver” and that heroin gave him “a false sense of bravado”.
The Bundoora business owner fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, July 29, having been locked up since June 12.
The court heard police found a text asking Keung for $5000 worth of drugs after he was caught with heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and $8075 cash.
Constable Irwin Ee said police pulled him over when he was driving in Preston on February 14 and believed he was drug-affected.
They then found 11.3g of heroin between many plastic bags with the weights written on them and 1.9g of methamphetamine in a toiletries bag on the passenger seat.
Constable Irwin Ee said when police later asked why Keung had been driving on drugs, he said he only remembered taking heroin before driving, telling police it gave him “a false sense of bravado”.
“I’m a pretty safe driver. I’m super careful,” he said.
At Heidelberg police station police found 1.9g of cannabis in Keung’s underwear.
Keung gave police his phone password, leading them to texts from two people asking to buy drugs from him.
He was on bail for drug trafficking and breaching a curfew condition of the bail when he was found alone in his car in Bundoora about 1.30am on June 12.
Keung had 11.21g of heroin, four prescription tablets, $300 cash, a slingshot and a bag full of ball bearings and an extendible baton with him.
Keung’s lawyer said his client had struggled with heroin use since he was 15, and had dealt drugs to other students when he was in Year 7 at St Albans High School.
He said Keung had spent a decade working in drug and alcohol counselling before it became too much for him six years ago and caused his drug use to increase.
The lawyer acknowledged Keung was well aware of the harm drugs caused and had been spreading the harm through the community by trafficking drugs.
The court heard Keung started a business cleaning houses last year and was selling drugs to support his own habit, which involved using up to 7g of heroin daily.
Keung pleaded guilty to the charges against him after Magistrate Michael McNamara indicated he would sentence him to a jail term and a community corrections order.
Mr McNamara said Keung’s history working to support people in residential drug rehabilitation made his trafficking “more heinous than might otherwise be”.
But he said he gave credit to Keung’s history when giving him the “perhaps lenient” sentence of three months’ jail, of which 48 days had already been served, followed by a 24-month corrections order.
He said rehabilitation should be the most important focus.
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