Footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has pleaded responsible to a hashish importation cost over an try and smuggle £600,000 of the drug by way of Stansted Airport from Thailand.
The 34-year-old striker was sacked by Scottish Championship aspect Greenock Morton after his arrest final yr.
The previous Livingston, Aberdeen and Arsenal academy product modified his plea to responsible at a listening to on Might 7 and this may now be reported after reporting restrictions had been lifted on Wednesday.
Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded responsible at Chelmsford Crown Courtroom in Essex to fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of hashish between July 1 2024 and September 2 2024.
He had beforehand denied the fees when requested to enter a plea in October final yr.
The footballer, who has additionally performed for Ipswich City, Bristol Metropolis, Queens Park Rangers and Thai aspect PTT Rayong, was remanded in custody forward of his sentencing on a date to be mounted.
Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Street in 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 by way of Stansted on September 2.
Border Pressure officers detected roughly 60kg (132lb) of the drug in two suitcases, which had arrived through a flight from Bangkok, Thailand.
Two suitcases had been intercepted with 60kg of hashish at Stansted Airport (Credit score: NCA)
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 mentioned that “at all material times they maintained both before the events that led to the importation and after the events they said they thought they were importing gold not cannabis”.
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 Street, Chelmsford, Essex, and 33-year-old Piotrowska, of Purves Street, 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 want to seem at his sentencing in particular person or by video-link and he requested that it’s in particular person, with the date for this listening to to be set administratively.
