A FORMER charity boss has been released on bail while he awaits sentence for firearms, drug money laundering and tobacco smuggling offences.
James Rodney Jones, 72, better known as Rod, pleaded guilty to the catalogue of offences while he was remanded in custody.
Jones, of Douglas Street, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to offences including having a sawn-off shotgun, money laundering and evading duty on cigarettes last October.
The defendant ran Convoy Aid Romania for almost three decades and the charity exports consignments of donated items to some of its most impoverished areas.
Jones pleaded guilty to possession of firearms including a sawn-off shotgun; criminal property, cash said to be £26,636; and fraudulent evasion of duty - being involved in evading £19,862 in duty on tobacco products.
The defendant also pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a Class B drug, cannabis, with intent to supply.
He will be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court later this year on a date to be fixed.
More than a decade ago, Mr Jones ran into trouble on one of his many mercy missions when he was investigated by the Romanian police for a number of alleged firearms offences.
Authorities in Romania seized several guns and air weapons from Mr Jones' residence during the course of their investigations.
The arms – a replica Winchester rife, two replica colt 45s, an air rifle and air gun – were, he said, shipped by mistake to Romania, among a consignment of aid several years earlier.
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