Daniels protests his innocence from jail
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• Jailed truck driver Billy Daniels has sent Commerical Motor a letter protesting his innocence on drugs charges.
The East London ownerdriver has had his 13-year sentence for smuggling cannabis reduced to 10, but his conviction stands following a High Court appeal heard before Christmas.
Daniels says he could not possibly have known the 800kg container of cannabis was on board his truck, despite what the prosecution alleged, He says that because he had a hidden belly tank fitted Customs had him on a computer and automatically searched his vehicle when he returned to the UK.
"Customs agreed at my trial that I had been turned out every time I arrived in the UK," says Daniels. "Surely under these cir cumstances it would have been madness for me to have attempted to smuggle anything, knowing full well the vehicle would have been searched."
Writing from Maidstone prison, Daniels says: "Where is the justice that the British judicial system seems to be so proud of? Surely we must now ask ourselves was my appeal dismissed for fear it would have opened a floodgate of similar appeals?
"No truck driver (innocent though they may well be) is now safe from proceedings such as these, which can wreak havoc with their lives, that of their families and also destroy their businesses," he concludes.
Daniels was arrested at Dover in 1989 after transporting a groupage load from Spain which contained the cannabis.