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Freedom fighter
Page 29
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3eing found guilty of smuggling drugs abroad 3Imost always ends in jail. Chris Tindall
-neets one haulier who, despite conviction,
;till has his freedom, but at a price...
Mick Boyden needs no time to consider his response when asked about the events that have shaken his world luring the past two years. His answer is clear: 'Perhaps I have been one of the lucky ones. I reel incredibly fortunate that I was let out after Jnly four days."
Fruly astonishing words when you consider his predicament — being stopped at French Customs with more than 200kg of cannabis hidden in a trailer. You only have to read recent stories in CM about drivers being arrested on the Continent following the discovery of drugs in their trucks, and then being locked up indefinitely, to realise he may have a point. At least he is back home with his family.
However. Boyden lost something just as important as his freedom that day; his health has suffered irrevocably as a result.
The story begins on Midsummer's Day 2001. At that time he traded as Boyden Transport and carried out work for Intexo, part of Exel, delivering regularly to depots both in the UK and abroad.
Boyden arranged to pick up a delivery in Liverpool and take it to Calais where he was to exchange trailers with another Intexo driver who had picked up a g,roupage load in Veghel, Holland. This all took place virtually without incident, save for the predictable pause to turf out a group of illegal immigrants from the exchange trailer, but that aside, everything appeared to be normal. Boyden proceeded to the French Customs where he was directed to the x-ray machine. Unfortunately for him, officers there discovered he had been transporting 170kg of cannabis resin and 136kg of dried cannabis plants within his groupage consignment.
It was almost two days later when Boyden's wife Trish finally discovered her husband's whereabouts. Two days without news had left her emotionally drained and she had been frantically phoning dozens of truckstops and garages trying to locate him.
Cordial court
But Boyden, a laid-back, genial man without a trace of a volatile nature, says he was treated well by the French police. He was driven to court in Boulogne three days later and there the judge told him he could return to England. She explained he might be required to return pending the results of an investigation but he was free to go.
There was quite a party when Boyden finally returned home after hitching most of the way. His truck was impounded by Customs and he had to pay £2.000 for its eventual release. This particular saga took two months to be resolved and the loss of earnings hit his pocket hard. Thoughts of four days in a French cell are still painfully fresh in his mind.
"They [his family] stuck by me," he says, his voice cracking with emotion. "You can't ask for more than that." However, over a year later — when Boyden had put the episode behind him — he received a summons from the Home Office requesting his presence in Boulogne as a defendant in criminal proceedings.
To put this into perspective, Boyden had heard the day before that his son was getting married. He agreed with his wife that to tell the family would ruin the wedding and so they resolved to keep quiet.
But the combination of worry and pressure grew to such intensity that within days he was rushed to hospital with chest pains. He remained there for two weeks and, a year on, is still unfit for work and on medication.
If there were any thoughts of not going back to defend himself, they were for a fleeting moment and Boyden does not admit to it.
"I felt !needed to go back to clear my name. I didn't think I had done anything wrong. Not turning up would have given everyone the impression I was guilty," he says.
One of his daughters found him a lawyer on the Internet and that December 13oyden and his wife returned to Boulogne. The trial lasted an hour and he admits he did not understand a lot of what was discussed. He thinks the prosecution wanted the judge to impose a five-year jail sentence.
Twisted justice
Afterwards, when he was outside and awaiting his fate, his lawyer Bernard Costenoble urged him to return to England immediately where he would be safe. Somewhat reluctantly Boyden and his wife eventually agreed. Costenoble rang the next day and told them he had been "discharged" and the papers were in the post.
Three months later he finally received the outcome of a nightmare that at that point had lasted two years. He was found not guilty of illegal transport and possession of narcotics but he was found guilty of smuggling prohibited goods. Customs lined him €850,000 — almost £600,000.
Not surprisingly,Boyden's opinion of French Customs has been tainted by his experience. "With the Germans you know where you stand, the Dutch are always helpful, the Belgians reasonable. B ut the French are a law unto themselves."
And that's where we leave Boyden, still wondering how he can pay an astronomical fine that would take him "several hundred years to settle". The situation is not resolved and his story serves only to highlight the potential dangers that hauliers face every day on the Continent But Boyden is lucky. As he says: "Freedom is worth more than anything else." •