Former Arsenal winger Jay-Emmanuel Thomas has received a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on importing cannabis.
The 34 year old had ‘recruited’ his girlfriend and her friend to bring 60kg of the drug into the UK from Thailand last year, worth around £600,000, according to The Express.
The two women thought they were importing gold, and were intercepted by police at Stansted airport, and with prosecutor David Josse KC saying in court that it “became apparent this defendant, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, had been involved in their recruitment to travel to Thailand.”
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The defence said that Emmanuel-Thomas made just £5,000 out of the transaction, but that he had made a ‘catastrophic error of judgement’ after hitting ‘very significant financial hard times’ after being unable to find a long-term contract at any one club.
Emmanuel-Thomas came through Arsenal’s academy but made just five first-team appearances for the club before joining Ipswich Town in 2011.
From there Emmanuel-Thomas enjoyed a solid career in the Championship and League One for a time, with spells at Bristol City and QPR, from whence he joined MK Dons and Gillingham on loan.
But Emmanuel-Thomas was left as a free agent after departing QPR in 2018, joining Thai club PTT Rayong in January 2019.
Since then he has had brief spell with Livingston, Aberdeen, Indian side Jamshedpur, Kidderminster Harriers, and most recently back in Scotland with Morton, who released him following his arrest last September.
Judge Alexander Mills said during the sentencing: “It’s through your own action that you will no longer be known for playing professional football … You will be known as a criminal. A professional footballer who threw it all away.”
