'Foolish man' fell for woman who 'doesn't exist' - now he'll spend 6 years in jail

A man caught smuggling nearly £900,000 worth of cocaine hidden in a mobility scooter through a UK airport had become "enamoured" with a woman on Facebook, who "probably doesn't exist", a court heard.

Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco, 56, was stopped with the huge load after arriving at Manchester Airport on a flight from Barbados. Manchester Crown Court heard that De Lemos-Francisco actually had no issues with his mobility, and that the scooter was being used as a way of attempting to smuggle class A drugs into the country.

But he was caught, and has now been sentenced to six years and nine months in prison. Defending, Rachel Shenton had said that there was a ‘long and complicated back story’ as to how De Lemos-Francisco became involved. “It is complex, it at times is nonsensical,” she said.

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Ms Shenton said that De Lemos-Francisco, who comes from Guimaraes in the north of Portugal, had become ‘enamoured’ with a woman he met on Facebook, who she said ‘probably doesn’t exist’. De Lemos-Francisco believed they were in a relationship and thought he was trying to help her gain access to an inheritance which she was entitled to.

But she added: “In respect of this offence, he is not an innocent dupe. He knew what he was doing, he fully accepts his guilt and responsibility. In many ways he was a foolish man, enamoured with a female. He got into something, what it exactly was doesn’t make any sense. But then gets into something over his head, committing this offence.”

Ms Shenton said that De Lemos-Francisco had recently been released from prison in Portugal, and was in ‘significant debt’. “He expected some financial gain, we don’t know exactly how much,” she added, reported the Manchester Evening News.

Prosecuting, Mark Monaghan said that De Lemos-Francisco was stopped at Manchester Airport by Border Force officers on March 30, after arriving on a flight from Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados.

“He was using an electric scooter,” Mr Monaghan said. “Though he was using an electric scooter, he didn’t in fact need the use of that for mobility issues.”

Mr Monaghan said that footage was later discovered, showing De Lemos-Francisco on another occasion walking without the use of a scooter. De Lemos-Francisco told officers that he was coming to the UK for two days to visit a friend.

Nothing suspicious was discovered in his luggage, but officers took a sample from the seat of the scooter which tested positive for cocaine. Asked if anything was inside the scooter, De Lemos-Francisco said: “I don’t know.”

It was X-rayed and was found to contain a number of packages hidden in the seat and back rest of the scooter. When asked what was inside, De Lemos-Francisco said: “I don’t know, you’ll need to ask my friend.”

The chair was cut open and officers recovered 11 separate taped packages containing cocaine, weighing a total of 12.8 kilograms, with a purity of 84 per cent. At wholesale value the drugs would be worth £198,000, but at street level they could be worth up to £880,000, Mr Monaghan said.

The National Crime Agency said that within the battery compartment of the scooter, a tracking device was found so those in charge of the importation could follow its progress. The prosecution said that De Lemos-Francisco had previously made the same journey with the wheelchair, flying out in January and returning in February.

Judge Nicholas Dean KC said: “It is very difficult to consider that that was for an innocent purpose.” But he stressed he would only sentence De Lemos-Francisco for the one trip where he was caught with drugs.

When De Lemos-Francisco was questioned by police, he denied knowing that any drugs were in the scooter. He said that he worked as a mechanic in Portugal, and lived with his mother, wife and children.

Sentencing, Judge Dean told De Lemos-Francisco: “This was not the sort of crude operation that we regularly see with couriers bringing back quantities of drugs in suitcases. This was a relatively sophisticated operation, that is not to say that you were sophisticated in your involvement in this operation.”

De Lemos-Francisco, of no fixed address, who pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class A drug, was told he would likely be deported back to Portugal at some stage.

After the hearing, Charles Lee, senior investigating officer for the National Crime Agency, said “Organised crime groups will try anything possible to smuggle drugs, but using a wheelchair and a man pretending to be disabled is particularly abhorrent. The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to combat the threat of Class A drugs and protect the UK public.”