{"id":417782,"date":"2025-09-12T06:37:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/417782\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T06:37:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:37:19","slug":"foolish-man-enamoured-with-a-female-locked-up-after-mobility-scooter-x-rayed-at-manchester-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/417782\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Foolish man enamoured with a female’ locked up after mobility scooter X-rayed at Manchester Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco pretended to be disabled<\/p>\n

07:00, 12 Sep 2025Updated 07:05, 12 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco(Image: GMP)<\/p>\n

A would-be drug smuggler was caught at Manchester Airport with almost \u00a3900,000 worth of cocaine hidden in a mobility scooter.<\/p>\n

Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco, 56, was stopped with the huge load after arriving at Manchester on a flight from Barbados. Manchester Crown Court<\/a> heard that De Lemos-Francisco actually had no issues with his mobility, and that the scooter was being used as a way of attempting to smuggle class A drugs into the country.<\/p>\n

But he was caught, and has now been sentenced to six years and nine months in prison. Prosecuting, Mark Monaghan said that De Lemos-Francisco, who is Portuguese, was stopped at Manchester Airport<\/a> by Border Force officers on March 30, after arriving on a flight from Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was using an electric scooter,\u201d Mr Monaghan said. \u201cThough he was using an electric scooter, he didn\u2019t in fact need the use of that for mobility issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mr Monaghan said that footage was later discovered, showing De Lemos-Francisco on another occasion walking without the use of a scooter. De Lemos-Francisco told officers that he was coming to the UK for two days to visit a friend.<\/p>\n

Nothing suspicious was discovered in his luggage, but officers took a sample from the seat of the scooter which tested positive for cocaine. Asked if anything was inside the scooter, De Lemos-Francisco said: \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mobility scooter(Image: NCA)<\/p>\n

It was X-rayed and was found to contain a number of packages hidden in the seat and back rest of the scooter. When asked what was inside, De Lemos-Francisco said: \u201cI don\u2019t know, you\u2019ll need to ask my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chair was cut open and officers recovered 11 separate taped packages containing cocaine, weighing a total of 12.8 kilograms, with a purity of 84 per cent. At wholesale value the drugs would be worth \u00a3198,000, but at street level they could be worth up to \u00a3880,000, Mr Monaghan said.<\/p>\n

The National Crime Agency said that within the battery compartment of the scooter, a tracking device was found so those in charge of the importation could follow its progress. The prosecution said that De Lemos-Francisco had previously made the same journey with the wheelchair, flying out in January and returning in February.<\/p>\n

A number of packages were hidden in the seat and back rest(Image: NCA)<\/p>\n

Judge Nicholas Dean KC said: \u201cIt is very difficult to consider that that was for an innocent purpose.\u201d But he stressed he would only sentence De Lemos-Francisco for the one trip where he was caught with drugs.<\/p>\n

When De Lemos-Francisco was questioned by police, he denied knowing that any drugs were in the scooter. He said that he worked as a mechanic in Portugal, and lived with his mother, wife and children.<\/p>\n

Defending, Rachel Shenton said that there was a \u2018long and complicated back story\u2019 as to how De Lemos-Francisco became involved. \u201cIt is complex, it at times is nonsensical,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Shenton said that De Lemos-Francisco, who comes from Guimaraes in the north of Portugal, had become \u2018enamoured\u2019 with a woman he met on Facebook, who she said \u2018probably doesn\u2019t exist\u2019. De Lemos-Francisco believed they were in a relationship and thought he was trying to help her gain access to an inheritance which she was entitled to.<\/p>\n

An image of the scooter when it was X-rayed(Image: NCA)<\/p>\n

But she added: \u201cIn respect of this offence, he is not an innocent dupe. He knew what he was doing, he fully accepts his guilt and responsibility. In many ways he was a foolish man, enamoured with a female. He got into something, what it exactly was doesn\u2019t make any sense. But then gets into something over his head, committing this offence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Shenton said that De Lemos-Francisco had recently been released from prison in Portugal, and was in \u2018significant debt\u2019. \u201cHe expected some financial gain, we don\u2019t know exactly how much,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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Sentencing, Judge Dean told De Lemos-Francisco: \u201cThis was not the sort of crude operation that we regularly see with couriers bringing back quantities of drugs in suitcases. This was a relatively sophisticated operation, that is not to say that you were sophisticated in your involvement in this operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Lemos-Francisco, of no fixed address, who pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class A drug, was told he would likely be deported back to Portugal at some stage.<\/p>\n

After the hearing, Charles Lee, senior investigating officer for the National Crime Agency, said \u201cOrganised crime groups will try anything possible to smuggle drugs, but using a wheelchair and a man pretending to be disabled is particularly abhorrent. The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to combat the threat of Class A drugs and protect the UK public.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco pretended to be disabled 07:00, 12 Sep 2025Updated 07:05, 12 Sep 2025 Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,30,393,4884,2465,2314,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-417782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-airport","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115189950508065319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}