Driver did not know of drugs
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• A court found a lorry driver not guilty of smuggling after hearing that he knew nothing about the £1.5m worth of cannabis resin hidden in his trailer. The 435kg drugs haul was picked up by customers officers in a groupage cargo at Ramsgate on 1 November last year.
Ronald Pearmain, 56, of Basildon, Essex has been a lorry driver for 25 years. He told Canterbury Crown Court that he knew nothing about the cannabis hidden in a load of Spanish mineral water and oil.
Pearmain collected the load in Hamburg but he never saw the contents as it was sealed before he left the warehouse. "I went down to the loading bay and moved the trailer so I could close the rear doors," he told the court. "I put the seal on it in front of the warehousemen and proceeded on my journey. By the time I got to customs the seal had not been broken."