Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver jailed for ferrying cannabis between Port Glasgow and Glasgow

A taxi driver caught ferrying cannabis between Port Glasgow and Glasgow has been jailed for 22 months. Police found the drugs when they stopped George Campbell's car near junction 22 of the M8 motorway last June. He was snared after undercover police were passed information as part of an ‘ongoing major investigation’ according to his lawyer.

Defence lawyer David Kinloch spoke at the sentencing hearing of his client at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday. The lawyer said that ‘unusually’ even the Crown accepted that Campbell was merely a ‘courier’ and claimed his client was naive. The 35-year-old, who is from Port Glasgow, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply on the M8 and elsewhere in Glasgow on June 8 2016.

Mr Kinloch said Campbell was offered £80 to take a man from the Port Glasgow/ Greenock area to Glasgow and back. The lawyer claimed it was only when Campbell was asked to attend a ‘second address’ while in Glasgow that he became suspicious. Mr Kinloch said: “When the boxes were being placed in the taxi he (Campbell)said, ‘What are you doing, what is this?’ it was only at that stage he was told it was cannabis.”

The defence lawyer stated that a ‘major investigation involving Scottish and European authorities’ led to surveillance officers stopping the taxi on the M8. He added that one of the persons being ‘surveyed’ has been prosecuted in relation to the investigation and said there was an ‘exceptionally long background’ to the case which would result in ‘life changing’ circumstances for his client.

Sheriff Daniel Scullion said: “Mr Campbell I take into account all of the facts of this case, and everything that has been said on your behalf this morning. You plead guilty to a serious charge on indictment. “I must have regard to the public interest in this case and cases of this type and no other disposal except custody is appropriate in this case.”

Sheriff Scullion said the term would have been 27 months’ imprisonment, but reduced the term to 22 months from today’s date.

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