Lorry driver for Shropshire firm denies drug smuggling role
A lorry driver has told a court that he abandoned a truck in Holland when he found boxes containing drugs while working for a Shropshire based flower business.
Stuart Grant paid for a flight back to the UK out of his own pocket before confronting bosses at Baan Flower Trading at Market Drayton.
At Birmingham Crown Court yesterday the 42-year-old told the jury he was given an apology and was told the drugs incident was "a one-off" and should never had happened.
He said he continued to work for the wholesale flower company and made further trips to Holland because his bosses, Baan Klootwijt and David North, had reassured him it would not happen again.
Grant denied that he had been desperate for money and had decided to take a risk knowing that his employers were involved in smuggling drugs. "I thought they were genuine and that the incident with the cannabis was a one-off and would not happen again," he said.
"They looked to have a thriving business and I saw how much stock was involved and I believed it had been a mistake."
Grant, of Deansfield Road, Bearwood, is one of four men who deny being part of a multi-million pound plot to smuggle cannabis.
Ashleigh Watkin, 38, of Loggerheads, near Market Dryaton; David Thompson, 42, of Laburnam Avenue, Cannock, and Gary Davies, 37, of Overdale, Telford, formerly from Market Drayton, also deny being involved in the conspiracy between November, 2011 and February, 2013.
Watkin and Davies also deny an allegation of being involved in the supply of cannabis during the same period.
The prosecution claim that the Baan Flower Trading on the Adderley Road Industrial Estate was a front for the drug smuggling gang who could have made profits estimated at around £7 million. Dozens of cardboard boxes containing cannabis and hidden among trolleys loaded with fresh flowers were smuggled into Shropshire for almost 15 months.
The jury has seen covert footage filmed outside a warehouse in Holland where Grant and Thompson are seen arriving with refrigerated lorries and helping to load boxes.
Grant told the jury that he believed the boxes contained flowers, pots or vases and he was there to drive and help load the vehicle.
"That was my job. I just did what I was told," he added.
Hours of covert recordings of conversations between those said to be part of the drugs plot have also been played to the court.
The jury has been told that Klootwijk, a Dutch national, and North, and two other men, have admitted being involved in the conspiracy to import and to supply cannabis. Three other men have pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis.
The trial continues.
