Powered by Blogger.

rss

Monday 16 May 2011

Three men have been jailed for a total of over 62 years for their part in smuggling £9 million worth of cocaine and eight million cigarettes into the country.



Mark Howie, 46, of Poole, Dorset, and Andrew Kinnaird, 47, of High Brooms Road, Tunbridge Wells, were each sentenced to 22 years.

They denied smuggling the drugs but were convicted.

Derek Tunstead, 41, of Eltham, who admitted both charges, was sentenced to 18-and-a-half years.

Howie and Kinnaird also denied conspiracy to cheat the revenue by evading duty on the cigarettes but were convicted, along with Lee Garton, 54, of Fair Lawn, Chestfield, Whitstable.

Garton, who did not give evidence during the eight-week trial, was jailed for four-and-a-half years.

He had previously served a 14-year sentence for armed robbery.

Gary Pucknell, 29, of Grays, Essex, was acquitted of the drug smuggling charge.

The jury could not reach a verdict on David Kelly, 66, of Lostock Gralam, Cheshire, on the drug smuggling charge and there will be a retrial on October 31.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the cocaine was smuggled into the country in a consignment of bananas bound for a supermarket.

Nearly 37 kilos of the drug was discovered in two large bags on top of containers after arriving from Ecuador at Tilbury docks in Essex.

Also smuggled into the UK on another occasion were over eight million cigarettes. The duty evaded was more than £1.2 million.

Shane Collery, prosecuting, said Howie was a successful property developer whose went bankrupt and turned to crime.

Kinnaird and Tunstead were employed in haulage but were sacked because of his involvement in theft. Pucknell worked in freight.

The cocaine smuggled was a valuable consignment, ranging from 62 per cent to 78 per cent in purity before being “cut” for distribution on the street.

It was discovered with the bananas in Luton, Bedfordshire, having been smuggled from Ecuador.

The millions of cigarettes were smuggled in June 2009 and it was intended to bring in “an awful lot more”, said Mr Collery.

They arrived in the country in containers from the United Arab Emirates.

The documentation stated the load contained children’s clothing.

Judge Jeremy Gold QC told Howie, Kinnaird and Tunstead: “All three of your are professional criminals who decided to involve yourselves in sophisticated crime for potentially huge profits.

“Your only concern was making money with no thought of the consequences to others.

“The proliferation of Class A drugs leads to misery on a scale which is not often appreciated. It increases crime, ruins people’s lives and threatens the fabric of our society.”

The judge said Howie had been a successful property developer who turned to crime “with enthusiasm” when his business failed.

He had access to substantial sums of money to finance the criminal enterprise.

All three made a deliberate and calculated decision to turn to a life of crime.

“You have to clearly understand the stakes are high and the penalties are very significant,” he said. “There has to be an element of deterrence in the sentences.”

Garton, he said, had declined to engage in the court process, failing to give evidence or an explanation in interviews.

Garton’s brother John Garton was earlier jailed for 14 days for hurling vile abuse at jurors outside the courtroom.

John Greenan, defending, said the 51-year-old painter and decorator, who admitted contempt of court, had been “wound up” by the jury’s guilty verdict returned on Thursday on his brother.

Mr Greenan said Garton, of Gipsey Road, Welling, had been surprised to see jurors return the next day for the sentencing hearing.

He had accused them of “coming to gloat” and swore at a woman juror in a nearby car park.

Judge Jeremy Gold QC told Garton: “You must understand jurors have a difficult job to do.

"They come along and give up their time and sit in judgement of people.

“It is difficult and stressful and the last thing they want is to be abused by a member of a family. It is a serious contempt of court. Abusing jurors on three occasions is simply not excusable.

“I will take a lenient view and impose 14 days imprisonment.”

8 comments:

Farhan on 7 December 2011 at 10:37 said...

Absolutely astonishing !
Truly , a lost treasure.

Quit Smoking
03215115899
03155020001

Anonymous said...

LPoor dereck it's a long time mate

Anonymous said...

Spot on with this write-up, I actually think this amazing site needs much
more attention. I'll probably be back again to see more, thanks for the advice!

Anonymous said...

This is a topic that is close to my heart...
Best wishes! Where are your contact details though?


Stop by my homepage :: Green coffee cleanse reviews

Anonymous said...

Along with e cigarettes, most people are satisfied with a couple
of puffs, preserving the rest regarding after.
E-cigarettes are much less expensive than normal tobacco. According to in your geographical area, a group of regular tobacco could
cost anywhere between $5 as well as $12 a new load up.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your info. I really appreciate your efforts and I
will be waiting for your next write ups thanks once again.


Also visit my site BeauteMD

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed, I have to admit. Seldom do I encounter a blog that's both educative and
interesting, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head.

The issue is something not enough folks are speaking intelligently about.
I'm very happy that I found this during my search for something concerning this.

My blog post ... Great Site

Anonymous said...

Very rapidly this web site will be famous amid all
blogging and site-building users, due to it's fastidious articles

My web site; on front page

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

van

Pageviews from the past week

van

Drug Enforcement automatically monitors news articles and blog posts tracking breaking news of arrests and drug incidents as they happen worldwide .These inter-active News Reports are followed as they develop. Giving you the chance to comment on breaking stories as they happen. Drug Enforcement alerts you to topics that are frequently linked to and commented upon in the world press. Someone is arrested every 20 seconds for a drug related offense !Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments are subject to the Blogspots terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of the Drug Enforcement site. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification.

Popular Posts

Latest Templates

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Map

Friend's Link

 

Privacy Policy (site specific)

Privacy Policy (site specific)
Privacy Policy :This blog may from time to time collect names and/or details of website visitors. This may include the mailing list, blog comments sections and in various sections of the Connected Internet site.These details will not be passed onto any other third party or other organisation unless we are required to by government or other law enforcement authority.If you contribute content, such as discussion comments, to the site, your contribution may be publicly displayed including personally identifiable information.Subscribers to the mailing list can unsubscribe at any time by writing to info (at) copsandbloggers@googlemail.com. This site links to independently run web sites outside of this domain. We take no responsibility for the privacy practices or content of such web sites.This site uses cookies to save login details and to collect statistical information about the numbers of visitors to the site.We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and would like to know your options in relation to·not having this information used by these companies, click hereThis site is suitable for all ages, but not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years old.This policy will be updated from time to time. If we make significant changes to this policy after that time a notice will be posted on the main pages of the website.

Latest News

Add to Technorati Favorites
Site Specific Privacy Policy run in accordance with http://www.google.com/privacy.html
We can be reached via e-mail at
copsandbloggers@googlemail.com
For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically recognizes information of your browser, IP address, City/State/Country.
We collect only the domain name, but not the e-mail address of visitors to our Web page, the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail.
The information we collect is used for internal review and is then discarded, used to improve the content of our Web page, used to customize the content and/or layout of our page for each individual visitor.
With respect to cookies: We use cookies to store visitors preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors' browser type or other information that the visitor sends.
With respect to Ad Servers: To try and bring you offers that are of interest to you, we have relationships with other companies like Google (www.google.com/adsense) that we allow to place ads on our Web pages. As a result of your visit to our site, ad server companies may collect information such as your domain type, your IP address and clickstream information. For further information, consult the privacy policy of:
http://www.google.com/privacy.html
copsandbloggers@googlemail.com
If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at the above email address.