A man in Wales who imported thousands of valium tablets from Sri Lanka claimed he hadn’t realised the parcels he had been receiving contained controlled drugs.
Roy Colin Bartram was arrested after the National Crime Agency of Wales intercepted a parcel sent to his home in March 2015 at Rheidol Court on Rheidol Avenue in Clase , Swansea, and discovered 48,000 valium tablets which were then destroyed.
Swansea Crown Court was told that “incredibly” the incident had not been reported to police, but later that year in September another parcel was intercepted, and this time South Wales Police were informed.
Prosecuting, Ian Ibrahim said in total authorities had intercepted three boxes, with around 50,000 tablets in each box.
He added Mr Bartram had told officers: “I was told to pick up packages by a person while fishing, and when I found out it was drugs I stopped.
“He said he had one parcel a month for about a year and he would get paid £100 for each parcel”.
However, police later discovered that Bartram had transferred £28,000 to an address in Sri Lanka.
Mitigating, Glenn Carrasco said: “It seems Mr Bartram is somewhat fixated by money and it is clear he was acting under direction of whatever role of someone else.
“Mr Bartram is well aware this offence had crossed the custody threshold.”
Before sentencing, Judge Paul Thomas criticised the length of time it had taken to bring the case to court, but not Mr Ibrahim prosecuting in court who had only recently become involved in the case.
He said: “The tardiness and decision making in bringing this to court, to use the current jargon, is ‘up there’.
“He would be going to prison but for a quite lamentable and inexplicable delay.”
He added: “You [Bartram] were involved in the large scale importation of tens of thousands of Class C drugs from Sri Lanka.
“Your role appears to be passing them on and transferring £28,000 in 18 transactions back to Sri Lanka.
“Your account given to prosecution I find, frankly, far fetched. However, I am bound by it because the prosecution are not in a position to contradict it.
“Your second piece of good fortune is even by the lamentable standard the court is used to, the delay in coming to court is a particularly bad example. It does not appear you played any part [in the delay] and I can’t see any reason for it.
“Your third piece of good fortune is prosecution accept you were not the main man. They have identified another man, however for reasons I have difficulty following, the prosecution did not charge him.”
