13-year term for ex-cricketer Lewis

12 April 2012

Former England cricketer Chris Lewis and his accomplice Chad Kirnon have been jailed for 13 years each after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine at Croydon Crown Court.

Both Lewis, of Brent, north west London, and Kirnon, of Islington, north London, denied knowingly bringing drugs into the country.

Lewis, 41, hid the drug in liquid form in tins of fruit and vegetable juice stashed in his kit bag but he was stopped by Customs officers at Gatwick Airport following a holiday in St Lucia.

Kirnon, 27, was also found with three tins of dissolved cocaine in his luggage.

The court heard that the two men, who claimed to be travelling alone, were picked up independently when they arrived at Gatwick just after 5am on December 8, last year.

Lewis, who said he had been in St Lucia visiting friends and family, was searched and customs officers seized five tins of juice stashed inside his Puma cricket bag.

These were found to contain a brown liquid which smelled of chemicals and turned out to 100% pure cocaine. Customs officers also found traces of cannabis residue in Lewis's luggage.

When questioned at Gatwick, the former England player said he packed the luggage himself and was not carrying anything for anyone else.

Kirnon was stopped 10 minutes later and three tins of fruit juice containing the same liquid cocaine were seized. When questioned, Kirnon said he had no idea the tins contained drugs and he said the juice was a gift for his mother.

As the sentence was passed, friends and family in the courtroom cried out in shock. Relatives wept as Judge Nicholas Ainley told the defendants they were motivated by greed and would be handed the same prison sentence.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in