A drug-smuggler, who trembled with nerves when stopped by Customs men walking through Gatwick Airport with £50,000 worth of cannabis in his suitcase, has been jailed for fifteen months.
Jobless block paver Daniel Girdler, 44, of Monks Way, Staines, Middlesex pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown court to importing 17.2 kilos of the drug on September 8, last year.
He left behind the suitcase he boarded with in Kingston, Jamaica, on the luggage carousel, instead collecting the drugs-filled luggage, then claimed he made an honest mistake.
Prosecutor Mr. Gavin Pattinger told the court Girdler was stopped in the ‘nothing to declare’ green channel as he walked through with a large suitcase.
“As they began checking the suitcase his hands began to shake and the Customs officers had to use bolt-cutters to open it.
“He claimed he picked up the wrong bag and made a mistake,” added Mr. Pattinger.
Girdler did not convince the Customs officials because the rogue cannabis-filled suitcase weighed 25 kilos and his only weighed 9 kilos.
Girdler, who lives on incapacity benefit and income support following quadruple by-pass surgery in 2008, eventually admitted travelling to the Caribbean with the intention of smuggling drugs.
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