Drug suspect avoids jail after police find £14k of heroin and cocaine in car with a lamb
John McNeil, 56, was caught in a car carrying £14,000 of drugs on the M74 in Glasgow while a lamb named Pablo ate chips in the back seat. He was sentenced to 300 hours of unpaid work.
Lamb named after Pablo Escobar present as police uncovered £14k drug haul on Glasgow motorway
A 56-year-old man has avoided a custodial sentence after being found guilty of possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply — drugs discovered beneath the front passenger seat of a car that also contained a live lamb eating chips from the back seat, bbc.co.uk reports.
John McNeil, of Fairlie, North Ayrshire, was a passenger in a Volkswagen Golf driven by Lindsey Sangster when police stopped the vehicle on the M74 in Glasgow on 22 April 2023. A police dog named Billy subsequently recovered £10,050 of heroin and £4,640 of cocaine — both concealed in bags beneath the front passenger seat. The cocaine's purity was recorded at no less than 76%.
The lamb in the back seat, named Pablo — after Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar — belonged to North Lanarkshire farmer Kirsty Mair of North Lanrigg Farm in Motherwell. A joint minute of agreed evidence confirmed Mair had not given the pair permission to take the animal.
A "trainee shepherdess" and a bag of chips
Sergeant Nick Twigg, 42, told jurors he had cause to stop Sangster's car on the motorway, at which point three people — Sangster, McNeil and a third man — were inside. An initial search recovered a glass pipe from the driver's door pocket; further pipes were seized from McNeil and the other man.
When Twigg asked about the lamb, he said McNeil told him Sangster was a "trainee shepherdess." Prosecutor Julianna Keenan asked the officer whether there was any evidence to support that claim. "No," Twigg replied. "The lamb at the time was eating a bag of chips left on the back seat. There were no bottles."
McNeil gave evidence to the contrary, telling jurors he had worked with animals in the past alongside his father, a retired agricultural contractor. He stated the pair had come across Pablo in the middle of the road while returning to Ayrshire after a trip to Edinburgh, where the third man had been buying a car. McNeil described the lamb as "dehydrated" and said it appeared not to have been fed for several hours. His intention, he said, was to "take him back to the owner," as Pablo carried identity markings on his ears.
Both McNeil and Sangster denied any knowledge of the drugs. A jury found them guilty in September of possession of heroin and diamorphine with intent to supply. Officers told the court the quantities recovered were "excessive for personal use" and consistent with supply.
Separate proceedings for driver Sangster
Sangster, of Kilbirnie, was found to have been under the influence of drugs while at the wheel and pleaded guilty in separate proceedings. She was disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. Sangster did not appear at McNeil's sentencing hearing; Sheriff Tony Kelly granted a warrant for her arrest.
A charge of resetting — the Scottish legal term for handling stolen property — in relation to the lamb was dropped by the Crown mid-trial, as there had been no reported theft at the time.
Sentencing: community punishment and a curfew
Defence solicitor Bronwyn Moore told the court that McNeil was now working as a team leader at a construction company, and that he had been "at the height of his addiction" at the time of his arrest. Sheriff Kelly noted he had been advised that the risk of McNeil reoffending was low.
McNeil was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work and fitted with an electronic tag for six months, requiring him to remain indoors between 20:00 and 05:00. No custodial sentence was imposed.
Pablo was taken to a farm in Ayrshire, where he was held for 48 to 72 hours before being returned to Mair. After his return, Mair said the lamb was in fine health and content among "his new pet lamb pals."
Source: Google News UK — Crime (en)