French jail for drug driver
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• A London driver arrested in France last July on the eve of his wedding has been sentenced to seven years in jail and fined £1.75m for smuggling 700kg of cannabis in his trailer.
Steffon Waphshott, from East Acton, has been held in Bayonne prison since 2 July after a customs check on the French/Spanish border.
According to his boss John Early at Croydon-based European Express Freight, Waphshott had just picked up a load including textiles and boots from Alicante in Spain.
The load had been subcontracted to EEF by Wakefieldbased Cresta Freight Services, which was in turn subcontracting for the Spanish freight forwarder Transnatur. Transnatur had in turn been handed the load by partners Laser Transport International.
Li This is the latest in a long line of drug arrests of British drivers in France.
In December Doncaster owner-driver Arthur Shipley was returning from Barcelona when he was arrested at the French border of Carcassonne on suspicion of smuggling more than 500kg of cannabis (CM 8-14 Jan).
Early's brother Michael was sentenced to 12 years in jail in December for drug smuggling.