School trip drug smuggler jailed

A coach driver who smuggled more than pounds 500,000 worth of cannabis while bringing a party of schoolchildren and their teachers home from a Continental holiday was jailed yesterday for three years.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that Customs officers found 152.2kg of the drug in a locker when they searched the vehicle at Dover in June last year.

Francis Alvey, 43, of Middlesbrough, Cleveland, denied all knowledge of it when he was questioned. But he admitted the offence yesterday. Shaun Larkin, for the defence, said Alvey had agreed to become a drug courier after getting into financial trouble.