A NORTH Yorkshire man caught with £250,000-worth of drugs has claimed he was terrorised into acting as a cannabis courier.

Philip James Easey, 41, alleged that Tenerife gangsters forced him to abandon his hopes of a life in the sunshine, running a club on the Atlantic island, and return to England.

He also claimed that as a result he owed £6,000 to English people from the Canary Islands resort who paid for transporting his family and their belongings back to Yorkshire.

Two years after his return, he agreed to act as a courier to pay off the debt because he was terrified of the creditors.

But prosecution barrister Andrew Campbell QC alleged that the creditors never existed and Easey was lying to conceal the fact that he was buying and selling cannabis.

Easey, of Northfield Lane, Riccall, whose wife Sara, the court was told, runs a toy shop in Gillygate, York, was being sentenced today after admitting supplying 50 kilos of cannabis in Manchester on January 15, possessing ten kilos of cannabis with intent to supply in March and two charges of possessing cannabis in Escrick.

Yesterday, Judge James Spencer QC started hearing evidence about why Easey had the drugs in order to decide how big a jail term he will receive.

From the witness box, Easey claimed that he returned to England in September 1999 after he received threats from "gangsters" about his club in Tenerife. The creditors, whom he refused to name, contacted him over the next two years, but did not insist on him repaying the money until his wife's shop was "doing better". He claimed he had no idea how much cannabis he was carrying or how much it was worth.

Earlier this month, York Crown Court heard that the Manchester stash had a street value of £250,000 or between £45,000 and £40,000 if sold in bulk.

The court heard that he and his wife owned two houses on their return to England, one of which was repossessed, and one of which they sold with a profit of £30,000, which they used to help buy their Riccall house for £81,000.

Easey admitted that he had lied to Northern Rock to get a mortgage and to Capital One to get a credit card. He alleged he had been refused mortgages for the Riccall house, and that £20,000 in his business account related to his wife's shop and had to be used on shop business.

Updated: 11:43 Tuesday, October 01, 2002