For a humble car dealer, Brian Charrington was fabulously well off. Customs officers suspected he was much more than a garage man.

From his life as a petty crook on the streets of Middlesbrough, Teesside, Brian Charrington, 45, transformed himself into a leading player on the world narcotics smuggling circuit.

He had links with cocaine cartels in Colombia and his "business" dealings reached Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Israel and other parts of South America and continental Europe.

It was a far cry from the day-to-day image he liked to portray, running a legitimate second-hand car dealership in his home town.

An attempt to bring Charrington to trial over a massive drugs bust failed in 1993.

A consignment of cocaine with a street value of £150m was intercepted by customs officers in Stoke-on-Trent.

Charrington and ten other people were arrested but the case collapsed before it could reach trial at Newcastle Crown Court in 1993.

Senior detectives admitted Charrington was their "supergrass" - something customs chiefs knew nothing of at the time - and he walked free.

Charrington and his brother, David, who were considered to be in danger, were re-homed in Australia by Scotland Yard.

Within no time, the Australian authorities became concerned when large deposits of cash from around the world began flowing into his bank account.

His visa in Australia was revoked and he moved to Spain. He bought a plot of land in Calpe, a resort on the Spanish south-east coast, and holed up in a mansion, complete with crocodiles in a pool in his living room.

Back in Britain, in March 1994, Thames Valley Police, under the direction of the Police Complaints Authority, launched a probe into the collapse of the £150m cocaine smuggling trial.

That sparked a covert operation by Cleveland Police, codenamed Operation Teak, which began in June, 1996 on the authority of Chief Constable Barry Shaw.

Chief Superintendent Dave Earnshaw and a colleague led the inquiry. They began to intercept hundreds of hours of phone calls made to two police stations on Teesside. It was these calls which were ruled inadmissible in evidence by the Leeds trial judge yesterday.

As investigations continued, police discovered Charrington was planning another drugs job, smuggling four tons of hashish worth £80m into the West Country.

Charrington had recruited ex-military, including former Special Boat Servicemen, for the carefully planned operation in late 1996.

The ship was stopped off the cost of Portugal by British Customs and Charrington was arrested at his Spanish hideway.

Again, he escaped jail when it was found customs officers had boarded the boat illegally and a trial at Bristol Crown Court in 1999 collapsed. Charrington went straight back to Spain.

In September last year, he sneaked back into Britain in a camper van.

He had feared he was about to be deported from Spain and jailed for seven-and-half years in Germany where he had masterminded a cocaine smuggling racket.

Armed officers swooped on an address at Topsham, near Exeter, where they found him. He was eventually charged along with the three police officers.