A LORRY driver who racked up gambling debts and “decided to have another gamble” by attempting to smuggle cocaine into the UK has been locked up.

Lukasz Kowalczykl, 29, was caught at Harwich International Port in February with 7kg of cocaine.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard he had agreed to £4,000 payment in exchange for a job smuggling the class A drug into the UK from the Hook of Holland.

Gareth Hughes, mitigating, said Polish national Kowalczykl said his stay in custody awaiting sentence had proven to be an “isolating” experience.

He questioned his level of involvement in the smuggling operation.

Mr Hughes said: “There is a degree of trust but equally there are those on both sides of the Channel ensuring those drugs are, once past customs, quickly taken from the driver.

“He has no idea of the scale of this operation, he was going to be paid what in the context of the value of the drugs was a relatively small amount – some £4,000.”

Mr Hughes also highlighted his client’s lack of previous convictions and complete lack of prior involvement in illicit drug importation operations.

The court heard Kowalczykl, of no fixed address, accepted the job because of the gambling debts he faced.

Recorder John Caudle said: “You built up your gambling debts because I suspect you weren’t a very good gambler.

Most people aren’t very good gamblers.

“You then sadly, whilst you were talking to this person in a bar, decided to have another gamble.

“As you said in the pre-sentence report, you were willing to take the risk of bringing the cocaine.

“Because you’re sitting where you are that gamble did not pay off.”

Jailing him for six years, Mr Caudle said Kowalczykl had been caught during his first border check, which may have been “the best thing that had ever happened to him”.

He said: “I suspect if you hadn’t been caught you may well have done it again.

“You would eventually have been caught and you would have been punished for making a number of trips which would have increased the sentence very substantially.”