British driver beats French drug charges
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
is A British truck driver who was fined £500,000 for transporting drugs in a sealed trailer has deared his name on appeal to a French court. Now David Benney who was remanded for 14 months in a Dunkirk prison, is expected to
win tens of thousands of pounds in compensation.
Fair Trials Abroad Trust, which took up his case, describes the verdict as a breakthrough—but warns that carrying sealed containers on the Continent is still like "Russian roulette" for drivers because they can do nothing to check the contents.
Trust director Stephen Jakobi says : "People have been picked up and charged with drug smuggling or transporting without any proper evidence that they knew anything about it," Benney, who worked for Dalton International near Bedford, picked up his sealed trailer in Belgium and was stopped by French Customs officers acting on a tip-off. They found nearly 400kg of cannabis in the trailer. He was acquitted of drug trafficking—the huge fine was imposed for a second charge of drug transporting.
Jakobi says that in the UK Benney's compensation would probably exceed £100,000, but in France it will probably be well below half that figure.
"He is not over worried about compensation," says Jakobi. "The most important thing is to try to recover with his family from all the mess."
Benney says his family suffered badly and ran into debt as a result of his imprisonment.