WHEN Customs inspected a lorry parked on an industrial estate on the Isle of Grain they found 646kg of cannabis resin worth £1.7million.

Weeks later, the same man who had loaded the drugs into the lorry was stopped, with another, at the Channel Tunnel at Cheriton with nearly £40,000 cash on them, proceeds from drugs, said the prosecution at Canterbury Crown Court.

Simon Coombes, 36, of High Street, Wouldham, Rochester was jailed for seven years on Friday having admitted harbouring the resin on February 9, 2004 and possessing criminal property in April.

Coombes had claimed through his lawyer that he was under pressure to launder the money by taking it out of the country by the man who had employed him to load the drugs, but Judge Michael O’Sullivan said Coombes was a trusted member of the organisation involved with the drugs and laundering money and there was nothing to support his assertion that he was under pressure.

Customs were watching the estate and had seen Coombes arrive at 6am, drive a loaded forklift then move and park a lorry before leaving. At 5pm officers moved in and discovered the drugs.

When stopped at the Channel Tunnel, Coombes and his passenger were found to have £39,640 on them.

Louis French, for Coombes, said Coombes was in deep financial trouble when he was offered £1,000 to assist in unloading the lorry. He had no idea of the value of the cannabis and at first believed it was cigarettes.

When the load was lost it was demanded that he take the money out of the country and he could see no alternative.

"This was out of character and his life and that of his wife are now in ruins as he faces a prison sentence," said Mr French.