Two fruit and vegetable traders convicted of involvement in a plot to import 1.2 tonnes of cannabis into the UK, hidden in a consignment of potatoes, have had their jail terms increased to eight years.
Lawrence Padoan (51) and John Terrence Smith (55), both from Spalding, were found guilty of using their legitimate companies to front a cannabis import racket.
A consignment of potatoes that contained 4,398 blocks of cannabis, with a street value of around £3 million, was picked up by Dover customs officers in April 2003. Padoan and Smith were both jailed for five years after being convicted of conspiring to smuggle cannabis resin in September last year.
However, the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland QC, referred the case to the Appeal Court in London; Lord Justice Thomas, sitting with Mr Justice Davis and Mr Justice David Clarke, agreed with his reasoning that the sentences were "unduly lenient", and the sentences were raised eight years apiece.
Padoan's company was named as the shipper of the potatoes and the delivery address was given as Smith's business.
During the initial trial, both men were described as “blameless fruit and vegetable traders all their working lives” and the judge said he could not understand why they had fallen in with the mastermind behind the cannabis plot, who is serving a long jail term.
However, there was a continuing dispute over the exact roles played by the pair in the conspiracy. They claimed they were only to receive £400 for their part, but the judge decided on the evidence before him that they were more than "mere foot soldiers" or "subordinates" in the conspiracy.
Padoan and Smith, who was said to be in poor health at the time of the offence and whose company was described as being in "dire financial straits", were chosen to participate in the conspiracy “precisely because of their apparent respectability and their legitimate businesses”, said reports of the case.
