£300k cannabis accused is now '˜skint'

Fingerprint evidence allegedly links James Kennedy, 25, to the drugs haul found in a lorry stopped on the Moorfields Road in Ballymena last May.

Kennedy, of Adelaide Road, Liverpool, was arrested this month as he flew back to the UK from Barcelona.

A judge was told the accused had been on other trips to Dubai, the Bahamas, Turkey, and Spain.

He replied: “I really have no money left, I’m skint. I have £62 left in my bank account sir, and that’s all.”

Kennedy faces charges of unlawfully supplying herbal cannabis and being concerned in its supply on May 7 last year.

Prosecutors claim he is linked to a fingerprint on a box containing 15kg (33lb) of the drug.

Defence counsel Jonathan Browne said his client paid for his foreign holidays using £16,000 received for selling his Volkswagen Golf.

Mr Browne added that the accused would regularly handle boxes during the course of his work as a motor mechanic.

Recognising that the prosecution case centres on a print on outer packaging, Mr Justice Burgess decided to grant bail.

He ordered the defendant to surrender his passport and lodge a £4,000 cash surety put up by his wider family.