Footballer sent girlfriend on 'all-expenses holiday' but didn't mention what she'd be bringing back

Wales Online

2 days ago

Footballer sent girlfriend on 'all-expenses holiday' but didn't mention what she'd be bringing back
Former Cardiff City player Jay Emmanuel-Thomas acted as a 'middle-man' in a plot to smuggle £600,000 of cannabis into the UK from Thailand, and used his partner as an unwitting courier
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas in action for Cardiff City in 2011
(Image:)
A footballer recruited his girlfriend to act as an unwitting courier in a £600,000 cannabis importation operation, a court heard. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas - who had a loan spell with Cardiff City early in his career - acted as a "middle man" in the smuggling plot which involved shipping some 60kg of cannabis into the UK from Thailand.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard the 34-year-old footballer arranged flights and hotels for his partner and her close friend and turned the smuggling operation into "an all-expenses paid holiday in the Far East".
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But the plan came crashing down following an investigation from the National Crime Agency which saw the women detained and their bags searched when they arrived on a business class flight from Bangkok. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter
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Sending the defendant down, a judge told him: "It is through your own actions that you will no longer be known as a professional footballer, you will be known as a criminal.
"A professional footballer who threw it all away and put others at risk of immediate custody to make what you thought would be easy money".
David Josse KC, prosecuting, told the court that on September 2 last year two women were stopped on arrival at Stansted Airport and their cases were seized and examined.
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In the luggage was 60kg of cannabis with a street value of some £600,000. He said the defendant had recruited the women - one of whom was his partner - and had arranged their flights and hotels in Thailand.
The court heard the women believed there was gold or cash in the suitcases. Read about a Swansea fishing boat skipper who was "at the heart" of a £100m cocaine smuggling operation
The couriers recruited by the defendant were initially charged in connection with the smuggling operation but the prosecution subsequently offered no evidence against them.
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The prosecutor said Emmanuel-Thomas was playing for the Scottish side Greenock Morton at the time of the offending, and that during his career he had played for a number of clubs including Ipswich, Bristol City, QPR and a number of overseas teams including - "significantly" - Thai side PTT Rayong.
He told the court the defendant was expecting a payment of some £5,000 for his role in the smuggling operation.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
(Image: National Crime Agency )
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Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Road in Gourock, Inverclyde, Scotland, had previously pleaded guilty to the fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of cannabis when he returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
Alex Rose, for Emmanuel-Thomas, said the defendant had enjoyed a successful football career but by the summer of 2024 he was experiencing financial difficulties and was living in a relatively isolated part of Scotland a long way from his family in London when he made a "catastrophic error of judgement".
He said for 30 years the defendant managed to turn his back on "negative influences" associated with where he was born in London but in the summer and autumn of 2024 he "succumbed to temptation".
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The barrister said the defendant realised his playing career was over but that documents before the court showed he had future prospects in football coaching or management.
He added: "He will regret what he did and feel shame for the rest of his life."
Judge Alexander Mills said the defendant had recruited the women to bring cannabis into the country and had acted as an "intermediary" between them and the drugs suppliers as well as arranging their flights and hotels in Thailand.
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The judge said the defendant "turned the importation of cannabis into an all-expenses paid holiday in the Far East".
He said that despite the "privilege" of being a professional footballer, the defendant had turned to drug smuggling to make money.
He told defendant: "It is through your own actions that you will no longer be known as a professional footballer, you will be known as a criminal. A professional footballer who threw it all away and put others at risk of immediate custody to make what you thought would be easy money". The judge said the defendant's conviction was a "significant fall from grace".
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With a 10% discount for his guilty plea, Emmanuel-Thomas was sentenced to four years in prison.
The defendant will serve 40% of that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
The almost nine months the defendant has spent on remand will count against the sentence.
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