A drug mule who imported heroin into Bermuda had her sentence doubled yesterday after the Court of Appeal found her four-year term was too lenient.

Geisha Ann Alomar from New York was jailed for four and half years in March for importing 143.8 grammes of the drug in December last year which had a street value of $158,180.

The Crown appealed on the grounds the sentence was manifestly inadequate, and the Appeal Court agreed.

Appeal Court President Sir James Astwood upped the sentence for the mother-of-four to eight years, telling the court: "This is way out if line with other sentences."

Crown counsel Vinette Graham-Allen said local cases seemed to have established that the sentencing range for cocaine importation was 12 to 14 years and that there should be a 50 percent increase for crack cocaine or heroin. Based on this, the sentencing for this type of heroin importation would 18 to 21 years, she said.

Sentencing discounts of up to 50 percent were available if criminals co-operated with Police or testified against co-defendants, but this was not the case with Alomar, said Ms Graham-Allen. However Sir James said sentences should not be handed out to a formula as though the court was a "grocery store".

Alomar's lawyer Patrick Doherty argued the four and a half year sentence should remain.

He pointed out the heroin was only 16 percent pure, which was very low for these types of importations.

He said a previous case involving $1.1 million of heroin attracted an eight year sentence, yet this case only involved almost $160,000 of the drug.

Alomar, whose four children include a handicapped son, wept in court when her sentence was increased.

When Alomar pleaded guilty in March to importing the drugs, the court heard her hands tested positive for a controlled drug when she was ion-scanned at Bermuda International Airport.

She was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and 15 cylindrical pellets containing the drugs were taken from her anus and vagina.

In a statement to Police, she said she had been given $5,000 by a man called Jose in New York, whom she did not know, to bring the drugs to Bermuda.