A STOURPORT man who tried to smuggle £17,000 worth of cocaine into the country through Birmingham airport to try to pay off his debts has been jailed for five years.

Aaron Weavers, 24, of Bullus Road, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to being concerned in the illegal importation of the drug.

Prosecutor Anthony Potter said Weavers was stopped by customs officers in January when he arrived at Birmingham International airport on a flight from Amsterdam.

He claimed he had been to Amsterdam to help his father move flats but was searched by the customs officers, who carried out a test on his wallet which proved positive for contact with drugs.

He was taken into a room to be subjected to a more thorough search and was asked if he had anything on him.

Weavers admitted he did and pulled two sausage-shaped packages from his underpants and when they were tested they were found to contain 236 grammes of cocaine with a street value of about £17,000.

His room at his home, where he lives with his mother, was then searched and officers recovered a set of digital scales and, hidden in a glasses case, some laxative powder which, Mr Potter pointed out, is often used to "cut" drugs such as cocaine.

When he was interviewed, Weavers admitted he had been smuggling cocaine to try to pay off debts which he had run up after losing his job as a chef in Chaddesley Corbett and after having a crash and having to buy a new car.

He said he had been approached by a man in a pub in Kidderminster and was told to collect the drugs from a man in a cafe in Amsterdam.

Weavers accepted that the scales in his room were his but said they were to weigh his own drugs and denied the laxative was used to cut drugs before selling them.

He claimed he hid the powder only because he was embarrassed about having to take laxatives.

Mr Potter added that although Weavers had previous convictions for offences including assault, there were none for drug offences.

David Mason, defending, said: "Of course he accepts, as he has done since the moment he was arrested, that he is going to receive a custodial sentence.

"He is extremely realistic about the whole matter and he knows he is going to get a significant sentence today and that there is nothing he can do about it."

Mr Mason said Weavers's downward spiral began when he split up with his girlfriend and started to take drugs but they are now back together and she is three months pregnant.

Jailing Weavers, Judge Richard Cole told him: "You were found to be in possession of a considerable amount of cocaine.

"It has to be custody and it has to be a lengthy sentence, not only as a punishment on you, but as an indication to other people to deter them from doing the same."