A British national who was caught attempting to leave the island with 0.45 kilograms (1lb) of cocaine, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment at hard labour when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magis-trate's Court on Tuesday.

Kevin Mulvey, pleaded guilty to posession of, dealing in, and taking steps to export cocaine when he appeared before senior Resident Magistrate Glen Brown.

The court was told that Mulvey was on his way to London when it was noticed that he was behaving suspiciously.

It was later discovered that he had ingested 54 pellets of co-caine, which he later expelled at hospital.

When questioned about the reasons why he decided to tran-sport the contraband, Mulvey simply said "I was going to smoke it." The sentence was handed down immediately.