A DRUGS courier who agreed to deliver cocaine worth between £50,000 and a £100,000 has failed to win a cut in his jail term.

Keith Smitheringale, 39, of Queen's Road, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court. On March 12, he was sent to prison for seven years.

Judges at London's Court of Appeal turned down his attempt to get his sentence reduced, despite lawyers' arguments that he had pleaded guilty at an early stage and only travelled 12 miles with the drugs.

After watching him make the delivery in December 2002, further police surveillance of Smitheringale had not revealed him doing anything else wrong, the court was told.

But Appeal Court judges ruled that Smitheringale was a "key player" in the drugs ring.

Dismissing his appeal, Judge Alan Goldsack, sitting with Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Bell, said moving drugs, for however short a distance, was "an important step in their final distribution."