GARY JOHN HUNTER and BRIAN SILVERMAN and RODERICK McLEAN JUNIOR v. HER MAJESTY'S ADVOCATE

As regards the co-accused, Roderick McLean, Senior pled guilty to the two charges at the conclusion of the evidence. Kenneth Corrigan, who faced only the first charge, was acquitted. The remaining four co-accused, who also appeared only in respect of the first charge, were convicted.

The appellants have appealed against their convictions. The remaining co-accused who were convicted by the jury have also appealed against their convictions, but since those appeals raise separate issues and have required a longer time for preparation, it was agreed, with the approval of the court, that the appeals of the present appellants should be heard and determined separately, leaving the remaining appeals to be dealt with in due course.

By way of background to our consideration of these appeals, it is convenient to set out at this stage an outline of the evidence relating to the main events leading up to the alleged meeting of the two vessels.

On 13 July 1996 the Isolda sailed from Cadiz, apparently stating Gothenburg as her destination. She proceeded on a course which took her out into the Atlantic and then round Ireland and Scotland. On 18 July 1996, while the vessel was still in the Atlantic, two sets of geographical co-ordinates were inserted into her navigation system. One was set for a point just off the Dutch coast and the other for a point in the North Sea 59 o north 1 o west.

The Crown maintained that it had been intended that the Ocean Jubilee would put into Inverness with the cargo of cannabis resin and that it would be unloaded into the van which Corrigan had driven there. The cargo would then be taken to the shed at Kirkcaldy, and Silverman would drive to London with all or part of it. The invoice indicating a cargo of asbestos-related goods was designed to discourage close examination in the event of the van being stopped by any person in authority.