Owner-driver given five years for drugs
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• Owner-driver Christopher Griffin received a five-year prison sentence last Friday (10 February) for bringing £650,000-worth of cannabis into the country inside his truck's spare wheels.
Griffin's wife Lesley, who maintains he is innocent, appealed against the conviction immediately after the case finished at Maidstone Crown Court (CM 9-15 February).
She is relieved that her husband did not get a heavier sentence as a solicitor had told her husband he could have faced up to 14 years in jail. And Mrs Griffin has heard of a case where a driver found guilty of smuggling £400,000-worth of drugs was jailed for eight years: "The judge said he could have got eight years, but he gave him a reduction because of impressive references from friends and family." she says. "But he's
in prison for a crime he did not do." Mrs Griffin, of the Isle of Sheppey, will have to sell her car to pay for the appeal expenses which will not be covered by legal aid.
She hopes to get an appeal within six months.