Informer jailed
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• A truck driver who was registered as an informant for HM Customs & Excise has been sentenced to nine years in prison for smuggling cannabis worth 13.2m into the UK.
Wakefield-based Chris Kershaw, who has no previous convictions, maintains he is innocent. He was arrested last April while working for West Yorkshire-based Future Forwarding. National intelligence officers seized 19 boxes of cannabis weighing 1,00014 from the back of his trailer, which was loaded with heavy machinery. A bag containing 29,700 cash was also seized from his cab.
During the trial it emerged that Kershaw had repeatedly given information to Customs officers, including details which led to the seizure of a load containing pornographic material. Kershaw had even informed officers when a colleague asked him to bring drugs into the country.
Campaigning on behalf of Kershaw and his family, Danneke Neale of Drivers and Families Help Line says: "The drugs found on Chris' trailer were not even hidden. They were sitting on a pallet at the back of the trailer for all to see. How many guys smu ling anything would do that?"