A HOYLAKE travel firm owner, who imported drugs with a potential street value of £5 million from Holland on a coach, had his 18-year prison sentence upheld by the Criminal Appeal Court in London.

Trevor Anthony Haskayne, aged 57, of School Lane, Meols, was jailed in December 1995 at Maidstone Crown Court after being found guilty.

He recieved concurrent terms of 18 years for importing nearly 400,000 Ecstasy tablets and eight years for importing three-and-a-half kilograms of amphetamine.

Co-accused John Philip Moore, aged 22, admitted the same offences and was given eight years.

Mr Justice Kay, sitting with Lord Justice Henry and Mr Justice Rougier, announced in the Appeal Court: "Bearing in mind there is no mitigation by way of a guilty plea, the sentence cannot be said to be manifestly excessive.

"This was a massive importation of very dangerous drugs.

"It was accepted he was not at the top of the organisation but he could not be said to be a mere courier and he could be assessed as an organiser. In the course of his business he became involved and provided a vehicle used for the importation.

"It is clear from the evidence of passengers that he was actively taking steps to organise the importation and tried to avoid detection when the load arrived in this country."

Mr Justice Kay said Haskayne ran a travel firm which took coach parties on short European breaks. He accompanied one party -which his co-accused joined - to Amsterdam.

Customs stopped the coach when it returned to Dover in December 1994. Haskayne told them the coach had come from Dunkirk, but when they examined documentation they realised it had come from Amsterdam and searched it, discovering the drugs.

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