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RHA backs drug-case driver
Page 7
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THE ROAD Haulage Association has launched a fighting fund to help a truck driver jailed in France for 18 months for drug smuggling to prove his innocence at the European Court of Human Rights.
RHA member David Stevenson was sentenced to two years' jail and fined €381,000 (£253,179) within hours of being arrested at Calais on 9 November 2002 after picking up a loaded trailer for P&O Ferrymasters from a regular client in France.
The prosecution claimed he loaded the seven pallets containing 250kg of cannabis at Advinkerque. But his tachograph showed it was impossible for him to have loaded and shrink-wrapped the pallets during his two stops.Stevenson has always protested his innocence;he was finally released last May (CM 17 June).
RHA's southern and eastern regional director Chris Wright says: "We have set up the fund to help David because we think that he was given a raw deal. We are putting an appeal out in Roadway magazine asking for our members to help him out.At the moment the fund is only for him but if it is successful it could be expanded to help other drivers in a similar situation.
• Contact: Jane George, Rothera Dowson solicitors on 0115 9100 600