A Christchurch couple who produced and sold heroin out of their suburban address were given separate sentences of jail and home detention at the city's District Court on Friday afternoon.

Joanne Halliday, 52, of Waltham, was imprisoned for 27 months on charges of manufacturing and supplying heroin.

Her partner, Neil Parkin, 52, was given eight months home detention for allowing his premises to be used for the manufacture and sale of the drug.

The couple's offending came to light in April 12 when police spotted a man leaving their address carrying a syringe and container with a small amount of liquid inside.

Forensic tests of the liquid found it was mostly water, with a small amount of heroin and morphine in it.

During a subsequent search of the address on the same day police found 152 empty morphine sulphate capsules, which were used in the heroin production process, along with more than a thousand dollars in cash.

In sentencing Halliday, judge Tom Gilbert said that there was a "clear commercial purpose behind what you were doing".

In considering the sentence to hand out to Halliday, the judge said that he had to consider what a problem drugs were in New Zealand.

"Methamphetamine is the major scourge at the moment, but certainly heroin has nothing to recommend it whatsoever."

The judge also said that the offending was not "spur of the moment, clearly you thought about it".

He began with a sentence of three years, which was cut to 27 months for the remorse Halliday had showed, and for her guilty plea.

The judge said that Halliday's end sentence, even if it had been under two years, and therefore eligible to be converted to a home detention sentences, would not have been considered due to the severity of her offending.

Lawyer, Glenn Dixon, representing Parker said that the defendant had not been "actively involved in the manufacture and sale of the drug", which had been done by his partner.

Mr Dixon said the fact that the offending had been carried out in his home had put Parkin "between a rock and a hard place".

However judge Gilbert said that Parkin had been "wilfully blind" and had "acquiesced" in the offending by failing to do "what you could have and should have to stop it".

However as Halliday was in jail, and the couple's address was suitable for electronic monitoring, the judge was happy to sentence him to home detention at the address.