Bradley Else celebrated his 26th by smuggling drugs
Else was caught red-handed(Image: PA)
A man has escaped a prison sentence after being caught smuggling 22 kilos of cannabis at Manchester Airport following a fishing trip to Thailand.
Bradley Else, from Wigan, was celebrating his 26th birthday when officers boarded an aircraft on June 4 this year to arrest him as he was wanted over an alleged assault, a court heard.
He was taken to a police station to be interviewed and when he was released cops said he should return to Manchester Airport to collect his suitcase. He did just that and was arrested again when Border Force officers found a series of heat-sealed bags containing cannabis hidden under his clothes.
Today (September 10, 2025) Else appeared at Manchester Crown where the Recorder of Manchester Nicholas Dean KC spared the defendant a jail sentence after concluding he was not a criminal ‘in any real sense’.
Police boarded his aircraft, which had flown from Thailand via Abu Dabi, at Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport on June 4 – the defendant’s birthday – as he was wanted over a separate offence, an alleged assault, prosecutor Rani Kaur told the court.
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He was escorted off the plane and taken to Cheadle Heath police station where he was interviewed and released without being charged, the court heard. He returned to the airport as suggested by police officers to collect his as-yet unclaimed suitcase, said the prosecutor.
Border Force officers, however, had already intercepted the suitcase, which had his name on it, as a scan picked up ‘anomalies’ suspected to be packages of cannabis. Some 22 kilos of cannabis in heat-sealed packages were found hidden under his clothing, said Ms Kaur.
The defendant was arrested a second time and he told officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) during an interview he had paid £600 for a return flight to Thailand for a two-week fishing trip. He claimed an unknown male approached him and asked him bring a friend’s suitcase back into the UK for £200.
Else had three previous convictions on his record including for possession of a class B drug which resulted in a suspended prison sentence in 2023, the court heard.
His barrister Adam Roxborough pleaded for a suspended prison sentence and he told the judge: “He was performing a limited function under direction and he received a small financial recompense. There’s no evidence of influence of anybody above him or a chain and he could not understand the scale of the operation.”
He said his client had been ‘extremely foolish’ and it was ‘inevitable’ he would be caught committing an ‘unsophisticated’ crime.
The defendant had admitted in an interview with the probation service for a pre-sentence report that he knew what was in the suitcase was ‘illegal’, the court heard.
Recorder Dean KC, Manchester’s top judge, told the defendant his original story and the fact he was to be paid £200 were ‘not credible’.
“I don’t know the truth of how much you were offered or how much you expected to be paid for it. But it seems to me you chose to bring back a bag which in my judgment you knew contained cannabis,” said the judge.
He noted the defendant had previously served a previous suspended sentence and added: “You remain a young man. It may be that you are naive to some extent but you are not stupid.”
The judge went on: “I don’t think in any real sense you are a criminal. You are someone who seems to have acted stupidly and opportunistically who doesn’t seem to be someone who is part of an organised crime group.”
His father and sister watched from the public gallery as Else, of Sefton Road in Orrell, Wigan, was handed an 18-month sentence suspended for two years after he admitted a single charge of fraudulently evading a prohibition.
He was also ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and complete 20 days of rehabilitation activity. Else has already spent three months in custody awaiting sentence.