A HIGHLY respected ‘family man’ who engineered ten operations to import nearly £50,000 worth of drugs into Jersey has been jailed for nine years.

Martin Gaish (58), who was working as a van driver for a mail ordering company based in Chessington, packed amounts of cannabis in the UK and sent them to Jersey using the UPS courier service.

He then booked flights to arrive in the Island on the same day so he could meet the courier and pass on the drugs to an accomplice.

Crown Advocate Sally Sharpe told the Royal Court yesterday that despite his respectable background Mr Gaish was a ‘persistent and determined’ drugs courier.

He used ‘a sophisticated system for importing the cannabis, which was strikingly distinctive,’ she said.

Gaish pleaded guilty to just one count relating to his final attempt to import cannabis on 8 September last year.

On that occasion Gaish prepacked 4.91 kilos of cannabis and arranged for UPS to collect the package and deliver it to Flat 5, 105 Halkett Place, in Jersey.