A grandmother who smuggled cocaine worth £1m into the UK in her mobility vehicle was today jailed along with her daughter for 13 years.

Ambrozine Heron, 77, and Paulette Chambers, 49, were stopped by customs officers at Dover in March after travelling from France. A search of Heron's adapted Nissan Pathfinder uncovered 16kg of uncut cocaine stashed in carrier bags on the back seat, hidden inside tins of palm oil.

Sentencing the pair at Canterbury crown court, the judge, Adele Williams, described Heron - who has diabetes, asthma and hypertension - as a "willing participant" in the crime.

"I have no doubt that your role in the car was to add some respectability to the journey in respect of your age and your ill health," the judge said.

The court heard that the pair, from Smethwick, near Birmingham, were likely to have smuggled drugs into the UK on several other occasions, as they had made the same or similar journey 14 times in the six months before their arrest. Financial checks revealed that £90,000 in cash had been put in Chambers' bank account since their first trip.

Quentin Hunt, prosecuting, said Chambers, a mother of three, told customs officers they had been visiting relatives in France when they were stopped at about 11.30am on March 21.

"In fact they had gone to Amsterdam, or near Amsterdam, and it was clear that that was where the drugs were collected from," Hunt said. "For the majority of the trips they had been going through France, through Belgium, and into Holland, and returning the next day or soon after."

Defence lawyers for the mother and daughter asked the judge to take into account their ages and previous good character, as well as Heron's ill health.

Williams said: "The sympathy of the court cannot be engaged in that way. Those who import class A drugs into the United Kingdom commit a very serious offence. Cocaine is a dangerous and pernicious drug capable of causing havoc in people's lives."

Edmund Anderson, who was driving the vehicle when the two women were stopped, was acquitted of any involvement. Chambers admitted the crime and Heron was found guilty by a jury.


Guardian