A SOUTH African national was stopped at British customs trying to smuggle almost £60,000 worth of drugs into the country, a court heard yesterday.

Karel Van Heerden, 37, was arrested at Newcastle Airport carrying a locked suitcase containing suspect packages.

Customs officers found 18kg worth of cannabis that he was taking to London to hand over to someone else.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how he had lost his job, wife and children through alcoholism and was acting as a courier on behalf of others.

John Gillette, prosecuting, told the court how the haul had a street value of £56,340.

Van Heerden told officers his parents had been threatened with their lives if he refused to carry the drugs. But he had been paid £2,000 for it.

He pleaded guilty to the illegal importation of drugs at an earlier hearing.

Van Heerden, of Johannesburgh, South Africa, will return to his homeland to face fraud charges when he has completed a three-year jail sentence in Britain.

Sentencing, Judge William Crawford said: "Sentence for this kind of offence must be high to discourage other people."