Nurse is stopped with £50k cannabis

A nurse from Wolverhampton who is studying for a degree at the city's university was caught smuggling £50,000 worth of cannabis through Gatwick Airport.

Vivine Smith, 27, tried to bluff Customs officers by claiming the suitcase she had with her was not hers.

But the pregnant mother-of-one eventually pleaded guilty to unlawful importation of more than 17 kilos of the drug in herbal form.

She was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, at Croydon Crown Court yesterday.

Debt-ridden Smith, of Pond Lane, Blakenhall, landed in England from Montego Bay on July 12 with her four-year-old daughter. She had three suitcases and was stopped in the Nothing to Declare green channel.

She told Customs officers one of the cases was not hers, despite having a tag with her name and address on it. Mr Alastair Smith, prosecuting, said: "The case was found to contain packages of tightly-wrapped cannabis."

Mr. Raymond Barnett, defending, said Smith was expecting a baby in May. "She went to Jamaica to meet her partner's family and while there she met people who organised the drug run," he added.

"She mentioned she had debts of around £6,000 and it was suggested she could clear them by bringing in drugs."

The court was told Smith is in the first year of a community health degree course at Wolverhampton University, working part time as an auxiliary nurse and being financed by a student loan.