School mates partied in Thailand on dream lads holiday - then police met them at Manchester Airport

"I may as well tell you because you’re going to see it”

Two lads who went on a three-week holiday to Thailand found themselves in the dock after they landed back at Manchester Airport.

Lewis Ellis and James Poutch had gone to the South-east Asian country to party at the Water Festival in April this year. However, on their return, both were pulled by customs officials and were confronted over the contents of their suitcases.

Ellis, 20, told them: “I have cannabis in my bag, I may as well tell you because you’re going to see it.”

In the two suitcases, officers found a total of 37 kilos of the drug in plastic-sealed packages.

Both were handed suspended sentences, as a judge dubbed the incident as ‘naive and stupid’. They had both earlier pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of class B drugs.

Georgia Kennedy-Curnow, prosecuting, said Ellis and Poutch, 19, were stopped at Manchester Airport having flown from Bangkok via Abu Dhabi. Ellis was first confronted by officers, and said he had been on a three-week leisure trip with a friend he knew from school, she said.

On searching his luggage they found 19.83 kilos of cannabis.

Poutch was spoken to a short time later. He told officers that he packed the suitcase himself and confirmed he wasn’t looking after it for somebody else. In the suitcase was 17.22 kilos.

“The defendant said he had lost his phone abroad and both defendants gave no comment in their interviews,” said Ms Kennedy-Curnow.

Representing both, Simon Hustler said: “The defendants would not seek to persuade the court that this was anything other than naked stupidity by two young men.

“Their families are in court today and are as livid as they were when they were before the lower court.”

He said for Ellis, who had eight previous convictions on his record, this was a ‘last chance saloon’.

Mr Hustler added that they had both paid for the holiday, and travelled there to attend the Water festival. But it was while they were there that they came into contact with individuals in Thailand and they decided to transport the drugs.

Sentencing, Recorder Geoffrey Lowe said: “You had an operational function in the chain, to courier these drugs into another country.

“This was naive and stupid for both of you - you exposed yourselves to the risk of imprisonment.”

Poutch, of Fenby Gardens, Bradford was handed 16 months suspended for two years.

Ellis, of no fixed abode, was handed 18 months suspended for two years.

Both were ordered to complete 240 hours unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.