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Fund for jailed driver
Page 7
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• A national appeal fund has been set up with the help of leading figures in the road transport industry to raise cash for a driver who was jailed for 13 years for importing cannabis into the UK.
Appeal organiser David Ramer hopes to raise a minimum £8,000 which will be used to finance an appeal against Billy Daniels' conviction and 13year sentence (see Dear Sir this week).
Daniels was found guilty last year of knowingly importing one tonne of cannabis, found as part of a groupage load in his sealed tilt trailer at Dover, after he had returned from a trip to Spain (CM 15-21 March).
But transport consultant Colin Ward who has joined the campaign is adamant that Daniels is innocent: "All the timing is wrong. Billy Daniels would not have had time to load the cannabis onto the trail
er. The evidence was very circumstantial. Daniels knew his trailer would be examined at Dover, so would he just leave it and go home if he knew there was cannabis in the back?"
Ward also maintains that misleading photographs of the crate containing the drugs were used in court.
Rayrner says that the more he looked into the case, the more he became convinced there had been a miscarriage of justice, which has serious implications for all heavy goods vehicle drivers. "This is setting a precedent in case law which puts every driver at risk, and it must be fought," insists Raymer.
Daniels' lawyers are currently preparing an appeal against his conviction on the grounds of fresh evidence, which will be submitted to a panel of three judges.