A DRUG smuggler was spared an immediate jail sentence partly because Britain's prisons are full.

German national Darius Sawka appeared at Canterbury Crown Court and admitted smuggling 6.65kg of cannabis through Dover docks in March.

The drugs worth £17,000 were hidden in a gift wrapped parcel on the seat of a Volvo 940 driven by Sawka, 33.

X-rays showed showed a number of packages found to contain the herbal cannabis and 149.9g of cannabis resin and not the pillows and duvet Sawka claimed.

Customs found 12,000euros with Sawka which his lawyer, Paul Valder, said was Sawka's life savings which he intended paying into a UK building society because the interest rates were better than Germany.

After hearing that Sawka was a cancer sufferer and also the sole carer for his elderly mother in Germany, Judge Nigel van der Bijl sentenced him to 12 months, suspended for two years and fined Sawka 8,000 euros.

Judge van der Bijl said the normal sentence would be two to three years, but added: "The current situation with the prison population is that we are being asked to look at alternatives.

"We are told by the media, who are no doubt speaking in reference to the Home Office, that if one person is sent to prison, a violent or a sex offender is released.

"I would rather the violent and sex offenders remain in prison and not worry too much about a man who brings in a class C drug."

He said the reasons for the sentence was because of Sawka's medical problems and his mother's difficulties.