Footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas pleads responsible to £600,000 hashish importation cost | Soccer

Footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has pleaded responsible to a hashish importation cost over an try to smuggle £600,000 of the drug via Stansted airport from Thailand.

The 34-year-old striker was sacked by Scottish Championship aspect Greenock Morton after his arrest final 12 months. The participant who got here via the Arsenal academy and was given his skilled debut by Arsène Wenger in 2010, additionally performed for Ipswich, Bristol Metropolis and QPR earlier than shifting north of the border. He modified his plea to responsible at a listening to on 7 Could that means his case can now be reported after reporting restrictions have been lifted on Wednesday.

Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded responsible at Chelmsford crown courtroom to fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of hashish between 1 July 2024 and a couple of September 2024.

He had beforehand denied the costs when requested to enter a plea in October final 12 months.
The footballer, who has additionally performed for Scottish golf equipment Livingston and Aberdeen and Thai aspect PTT Rayong, was remanded in custody forward of his sentencing on a date to be fastened.

Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Highway, Gourock, Inverclyde, Scotland, was arrested within the city by Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) officers in September 2024. His arrest got here after the NCA seized an estimated £600,000 of the category B drug because it was being smuggled via Stansted on 2 September.

Border Drive officers detected roughly 60kg (132lb) of the drug in two suitcases, which had arrived by way of a flight from Bangkok, Thailand. Co-defendants Rosie Rowland and Yasmin Piotrowska, who each denied the cost, face no additional motion after prosecutors provided no proof of their case.

Prosecutor David Josse KC stated that “in any respect materials instances they maintained each earlier than the occasions that led to the importation and after the occasions they stated they thought they have been importing gold not hashish”.

Choose Christopher Morgan directed that not responsible verdicts be recorded within the case of Rowland and Piotrowska and so they walked free from the dock. Rowland, 29, of Southend Highway, Chelmsford, Essex, and 33-year-old Piotrowska, of Purves Highway, Kensal Rise, north-west London, wept after leaving the dock.

Emmanuel-Thomas appeared at Wednesday’s listening to by video-link from Chelmsford jail. He was requested if he wish to seem at his sentencing in individual or by video-link and he requested that or not it’s in individual, with the date for this listening to to be set administratively.