A man walked free from Belfast Crown Court yesterday after being given a two-year suspended sentence for his part in a plot to smuggle 1.7 tons of cannabis resin worth £17 million into the Republic.
Ian Symington (37) from Ripley, Surrey, England, had pleaded guilty to abetting others who were assisting a Magherafelt businessman, Colin Lees, to import the drug into Co Donegal in 1996.
The judge accepted that Mr Symington's part had been a minor one.