A disgraced Colchester solicitor has been jailed for life for smuggling £5m-worth of ecstasy.
Under surveillance - Neale pictured by Australian police in Sydney, prior to his arrest.
Former hockey star James Neale, 56, was arrested in Australia after 271,000 tablets of the drug were found in a shipment of French wine.
The prison sentence is Neale's third: in the 1980s, he cheated banks and legal clients out of more than £200,000 and was involved in a stolen credit card fraud.
Judge Penny Hock said Neale was an "intelligent, manipulative and calculating man" who was the "prime mover" in the massive importation.
"(He) recognised he had been caught red-handed and he invented what he regarded as a plausible story in order to try to explain away the compelling evidence against him,'' she said.
Taking into account Neale's past on sentence, Judge Hock noted that he "has a burning ambition and drive to be part of some financial success story''.
Officers swooped on Neale and an Australian barman, Bruce Ridgway, who has been jailed for 12 years, after spotting what was then Australia's biggest ecstasy haul.
A joint operation between Customs and Australian Federal Police was launched after about 105.5kg of pills were detected in a container from France.
Police tracked the container to a warehouse and Neale and Ridgway were arrested in Sydney, in December, 2000.
He was found guilty of being knowingly concerned in the importation of ecstasy by a New South Wales District Court jury in January.
The jury rejected his claim he had been pressured by Triad gangs, under threat of death, to carry out the operation. Ridgway was jailed for 12 years after pleading guilty of possessing ecstasy.
The haul set a record as Australia's largest ever, with an estimated street value of £5m, although it has since been broken.
Neale, who has been in prison on remand since his arrest, was due to be sentenced several weeks ago but sacked his legal team and the case was adjourned. He finally heard his fate today when Judge Penny Hock sent him to prison for life.
He will be eligible for parole on December 8, 2021, making him 75.
More on this story in today's Evening Gazette
Published Friday November 15, 2002
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