Free after eight months
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Miles Brignall • A Kent driver who spent nearly eight months on remand in Canterbury prison has been found not guilty of attempting to smuggle heroin worth £852,000.
Owner-driver Clive Brown of Wyatt Road, Crayford was acquitted last week at Canterbury Crown Court.
Brown said he knew nothing about a holdall containing 9.86kg of heroin which Customs officers found strapped to the bellytank of his trailer.
Brown, who was working for Newington-based Les Edwards Transport at the time of the arrest, was returning from Romania with a load of tyres destined for Manchester. He said he had only left the truck while it was being washed at Zeebrugge and to make some phone calls.
At Dover he had slept while C ustoms inspected the vehicle and was woken to be told he was under arrest. Brown, who was physically sick upon being arrested, had offered to drive the 40 minutes to Les Edwards' depot in a bid to see who collected the drugs and prove his innocence—but this offer was turned down.
The court heard that the holdall was found in a clean condition and could not have been attached to the dirty trailer for long.
This was Brown's second trial: the original jury was unable to reach a verdict.
He says he is finding it hard to readjust to being out of a cell: "I'm delighted to be free but it's very weird," he says. He now plans to take a holiday and retrieve his tractor before deciding on his future.
7 Another driver was acquitted on drugs charges at Canterbury last week. Robert Dean McInley of Monkton, Prestwick, Strathclyde was acquitted of smuggling heroin with a street value of £1.5m.