{"id":426716,"date":"2025-09-15T16:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T16:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/426716\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T16:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T16:45:14","slug":"manchester-airport-officials-thought-there-was-something-wrong-they-were-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/426716\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester Airport officials thought there was something wrong, they were right"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oliver Chiverton was handed a suspended sentence after he was stopped at Manchester Airport<\/p>\n

17:13, 15 Sep 2025Updated 17:38, 15 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

Oliver Chiverton was caught red-handed(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

A man who claimed he moved to Thailand to start a \u2018new life\u2019 was caught with 26 kilos of cannabis at Manchester Airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oliver Chiverton, 32, was stopped by Border Force officials at terminal 1 on August 16 this year. He was asked about his two suitcases and told officers they were not his but had been handed to him.<\/p>\n

Chiverton added that he thought they might contain cigarettes, Manchester Crown Court<\/a> heard. But when officers searched the cases, they found multiple sealed packages of the class B drug worth over \u00a360,000.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition of the importation of a class B drug, claiming that he owed a drug debt to those he worked for whilst living in Thailand.<\/p>\n

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The judge, Recorder Geoffrey Lowe, handed him a suspended sentence. He told him: \u201cYou went there to settle and start a new life. Thailand is a popular location for tourists and sadly people exploit their vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court heard that 24 packages of cannabis were recovered, with an estimated street value of \u00a368,000.<\/p>\n

In a basis of plea document read to the court, Chiverton said he had built up a drugs debt whilst in Thailand, and said that in order to clear the debt, he was told to bring the suitcases into the UK.<\/p>\n

He claimed he had a \u2018limited awareness\u2019 of the scale of the operation and did not receive any financial benefit.<\/p>\n

Chiverton was said to have previous convictions for violence, criminal damage and one offence relating to possession of drugs in 2010.<\/p>\n

Jawad Babar, defending, said his client was trying to \u2018balance things in his life\u2019 after a difficult upbringing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had regular work [over there], and his income just about covered his expenses. He was trying to rebuild his life in Thailand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was working for an organisation looking for people to exploit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mr Baber said the organisation had previously asked him to take a suitcase but he refused, however afterwards they stopped giving him work which \u2018made life difficult for him\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was left in a desperate position and he agreed to do it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Chiverton, of Moa Place, Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, was handed 14 months imprisonment which was suspended for two years, 20 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and 200 hours unpaid work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oliver Chiverton was handed a suspended sentence after he was stopped at Manchester Airport 17:13, 15 Sep 2025Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413751,"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-426716","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\/115209328400663552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426716","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=426716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}