by Julia Roberts

A lorry driver involved in smuggling £5.6million of cannabis from South Africa into the UK has been jailed for six years today.

Nicholas Fullbrook, 36, was acting as a "caretaker" responsible for taking delivery of the 2,040kg which had arrived by sea hidden in car battery consignments.

Heroin was also smuggled into this country by the same gang via Heathrow airport. One consignment alone had a street value of more than £7million.

Fullbrook was in charge of premises in Lowfield Street, Dartford, where the drugs were unloaded.

However, Maidstone Crown Court heard that Fullbrook, of Powder Mill Lane, Leigh in Tonbridge, was not involved in the heroin smuggling, other than signing for deliveries and paying VAT.

He admitted conspiracy to import cannabis between January and September last year. His plea of not guilty to conspiracy to import heroin between the same dates was accepted by the prosecution and left on file.

Jailing Fullbrook, Judge Jeremy Gold QC said his role as a warehouseman was an "essential and central" link to the "highly sophisticated, international crime".

"It must be made clear to all," added the judge, "that a substantial period of imprisonment awaits anyone who becomes involved in an enterprise such as this."

The court heard several co-defendants are still awaiting trial both in the UK and South Africa.