A FORMER accountant, who ordered drugs to his home address, has been jailed after pleading guilty importing illegal drugs to the UK.

Steven Meakes, 41, of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, appeared at York Crown Court on Thursday, September 26 after pleading guilty to the offence at an earlier hearing. 

Meakes, who had been employed as an accountant at the time, was investigated after UK Border Force officers intercepted a parcel sent from an address in Belgium to his home address in the UK in October 2017.

Preliminary checks of the parcel indicated that there had been around £1,200 worth of cocaine in the intercepted parcel.

Shortly after the discovery, Meakes was arrested by police at his rented flat in Harrogate.

Police then recovered various items such as a bundle of clear zip-lock bags, a box containing a blade and black paper and white powder residue, a table tennis bat with white powder residue, latex gloves and a set of weighing scales.

The investigation into Meakes also found that he had also purchased more than £21,000 worth in Bitcoin, eight months before the drugs package had been intercepted. 

Police investigating Meake's phone and laptops revealed a search history relating to “best industries to make money”, “where to buy chemicals”, “drugs” and “parcel tracking”.

Meakes had pleaded guilty to the offence at an earlier hearing, and on Thursday, Meakes was sentenced for importing a class A drug with intent to evade a prohibition, receiving a sentence of three years, four months.