Ballanger awaits bail
Page 8
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by Karen Miles • British and Italian lawyers are fighting for the release of a Kent lorry driver who was jailed after £ 3.5m-worth of cocaine was found in his trailer.
Pat Ballanger faces up to four months in prison in Trieste awaiting trial in "less than A-one condition", says his British lawyer Robin Clark. But it is hoped that Ballanger will be bailed within three weeks. His transport manager Peter Tester, from Memtrans, a Turkishowned company with a Gravesend base, was released at the weekend without charge after three weeks' solitary confinement in an unlit cell in Trieste jail. He had answered a request from the port's authorities to assist Ballanger.
Ballanger, 43, was on his first international trip for Memtrans. He was detained after flying from Istanbul to Trieste to meet the trailer off a ferry: 68kg of cocaine was discovered in a false compartment in a trailer owned by a Turkish customer of Mem trans. "Mr Ballanger had no dealings with the trailer and coupled with Mr Tester's release we are very hopeful that he will soon be released," says Clark.
The case coincides with an appeal by John Harrower, the Oldham owner-driver who has begun a four-year sentence in France after being convicted of attempting to smuggle cannabis.
Harrower, who is held at Bayonne prison, has maintained his innocence ever since 80kg of cannabis was found in his trailer last year.
rT Roy Clarke, cleared of drug smuggling charges in Spain a month ago. remains trapped there because the Spanish authorities have failed to return his passport (see page 42).