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Cleared on cannabis haul
Page 11
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• An owner-driver has been cleared by a jury of smuggling cannabis worth £344,000 hidden in a cargo of shoes.
Roger Smith, of Adelaide Rd, Tilbury, Essex told Canterbury Crown Court he had no idea that the drugs were in his load. The cannabis was found by Customs officers at Dover in May last year in holdalls beneath the shoe boxes.
Smith was returning from Portugal and had not been present when his trailer was loaded for the trip. He said he left the trailer at the warehouse while he took his tractor to a fitter to have repairs made to a faulty alternator. "When I got back they were still loading so I went to a cafe for a cup of coffee and phoned my daughter," he told the court. "When I got back the lorry was loaded. The doors were already closed and the seal was on the vehicle." Smith said that when he was arrested at Dover he thought the Customs officers were joking.
Smith is the third driver to be cleared on drugs charges at Canterbury in the past month.