A DAY-TRIPPER has been jailed for four-and-a-half years’ for importing almost two kilos of cannabis resin. Robert Issako, 53, a long-standing drugs user whose UK tanning and toning business was ‘in dire straits’, decided to act as a courier to ease his money problems. He would have received £500 if successful.

After arriving from Stansted in December, he was stopped by Customs. He initially denied carrying drugs but then admitted he had eight bars of hash. Issako said he had come to meet a ‘Mr Joseph’, who was going to help him set up a tanning salon in the island.

A search revealed the cannabis resin lodged between an elasticated back support and his body. It had a street value in Guernsey of between £13,752 and £17,681.

Issako, from Harlow, Essex, who was born in Iran but became a British citizen through marriage in 1991, had two previous drugs-related convictions. He received 12 months for possession of cannabis with intent to supply in August 1998 and two months for possession of cocaine in June 2001.

The Royal Court heard that his trip last December was not his first to the island – two weeks earlier he made contact with ‘Joseph’ to sort out arrangements for the importation.

He was told to enter the toilet at Guernsey Airport and leave the drugs in a bag for collection by the person meeting him.

On the day of the run, the drugs were handed to him at Stansted Airport in a plastic carrier bag and he was told how to pack them to his body.

He was given money to pay for his ticket, but did not want to name the people who supplied the drugs.

Advocate Julia White said Issako had no idea cannabis was worth much more here than in England.

He was a model prisoner and was remorseful for his actions, she added.

Sentencing, Deputy Bailiff Geoffrey Rowland told Issako that he had imported a substantial commercial quantity, which would have added to the stock of drugs in the island.

It was a well-planned operation and the maximum sentence for importing Class B drugs was 21 years, although, in his case, six years was used as a starting point.

Issako’s sentence will run from 9 December, when he was first detained.

No drug trafficking benefit was identified, but the court ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs.