Dad spotted at Manchester Airport after 'monumentally stupid' decision is jailed

A dad was caught trying to smuggle drugs into the country after borrowing thousands of pounds from a loan shark.

Jack Brooks, 32, has been jailed after he was spotted at Manchester Airport. He said that he’d been ‘pressured’ into the smuggling bid after falling into debt. But as he jailed Brooks for a year, a judge warned that he was ‘sending out a message’ to deter others from trying the same thing.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Brooks arrived back in the UK on October 7, after flying from Bangkok via Frankfurt. About 20 kilos of cannabis was discovered in his suitcase, which was said to have a wholesale value of just over £90,000, prosecutor Justin Hayhoe said.

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Brooks had financial reasons for committing the crime, his barrister said. Ben Kaufman said that Brooks had initially borrowed £10,000 from the loan shark. He said that Brooks had then paid back £7,000, but that ‘punitive’ interest was added and the debt spiralled to £25,000.

Mr Kaufman said Brooks has had no contact with the loan shark since he was caught, and is unsure whether the debt remains outstanding. “Mr Brooks was preyed upon and manipulated to do what he did,” Mr Kaufman said. Brooks, from Burnley, who has worked as a barber and a JCB driver, initially took out the loan so he could ‘indulge’ his son, the court was told.

Judge Patrick Field KC told Brooks: “For whatever reason, I think it was just so that you could show off your generosity, even though there was nothing to back that generosity up, you took the obviously risky decision to borrow money from a criminal. It was a monumentally stupid thing to do.”

The judge said of Brooks’ trip to the Far East: “You went because you thought or believed that by doing the bidding of a criminal, rather than reporting him to the police, you would put an end to your ever growing debt.”

Sending him to prison, the judge ruled that a deterrent punishment was required, adding that he was ‘sending out a message’. He said: “What is clear is the offence you committed is one that is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in this court. The question of deterrence is relevant.”

Brooks pleaded guilty to one count of being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class B drug.