Businessman jailed after Burton-in-Kendal drugs swoop (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Businessman jailed after Burton-in-Kendal drugs swoop

9:27am Friday 10th February 2012 in News

THE boss of a painting and decorating business has been sent to prison for four years after being caught on the M6 in Cumbria with half a million pounds worth of heroin in his works van.

Carlisle Crown Court heard that undercover police watched John Cockburn, 32, making a rendezvous with a Liverpool drug dealer in a Blackpool car park on October 26 last year.

Those police alerted drugs officers in Cumbria who arrested him at Burton-in-Kendal as he drove home to Scotland.

One kilo of the class A drug was found in a brown paper parcel contained in a black sock, and another four kilos were found hidden behind a panel in the back of the van, prosecutor Alan Lovett said.

The heroin would have been worth about £500,000 if sold on the street, he said.

Cockburn, of Loancroft, Baillieston, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to possessing the drug with intent to supply it.

His defence advocate Chris Evans said Cockburn had agreed to be a courier after finding himself unable to keep up repayments on a £10,000 loan he had taken out 'in an unconventional manner' in a bid to save his failing business for the sake of his employees.

“He couldn’t pay because of the high interest rates he was being charged and after that there was a degree of coercion,” he said. “He was told he could pay off the rest by driving the packages with no questions asked.”

Mr Evans said Cockburn had not known precisely what was in the packages, though he suspected it was drugs.

He had no idea of the value of the drugs involved, he said.