A NORTH-EAST builder is facing the prospect of New Year in a Moroccan jail after being convicted of attempting to smuggle £500,000 of cannabis out of the country.

Christopher Hull, 44, of Hope Street, Crook, County Durham, hopes to hear this week whether an appeal against his five-year sentence has been successful.

He was arrested in Tangier on November 12 by customs and excise officers who discovered 325 kilos of cannabis resin in a British- registered transit van.

His conviction comes as The Northern Echo has learned North Yorkshire businessman Peter Bleach, serving a life sentence in an Indian jail for supplying arms to rebels, has been battling with pneumonia for three months.

Hull, who is single and has no children, is believed to be sharing a cell in cramped conditions with 34 other prisoners.

His family, including parents Derrick and Joan Hull, from Spennymoor, were last night too upset to talk.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "He is being held in Tangier and he is getting full consulate advice and has the services of a lawyer."

Christmas Eve marked the fifth year behind bars for businessman Mr Bleach, from Fyling Thorpe, near Whitby, who has always maintained he was working with the knowledge of the British Secret Service. He is working on an appeal with his lawyers.

His mother, Oceana, who lives near Scarborough, said she last received a letter from her son four weeks ago and that he was slowly recovering from his illness.

She said: "The past five years have been a terribly stressful time. All I can do is hope and pray."

Meanwhile, two Britons who spent two years in jail in the United Arab Emirates for drug smuggling yesterday had an emotional reunion with their families after receiving a pardon.

Social worker Ian Bamling and head teacher Lynn Majakas flew from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow Airport yesterday morning.

Mr Bamling, 31, whose family are from Selby, North Yorkshire and Knottingley, West Yorkshire, arrived looking gaunt.

He said: "After two years and two months in inhumane conditions, I want to go and sleep and spend some time with my family."

They were arrested in 1998 after officials at Abu Dhabi found three grams of cannabis in a camera case in their luggage. They insisted they had no idea the drug was there.