A taxi driver who agreed to move 3kg  of cocaine (value of £288.000) for only £200 has been jailed for six years.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Green made the “monumentally stupid” choice to move the 87% pure cocaine after running into financial difficulty following a break-up with his partner.

The dad-of-one was pulled over by police on Moore Rd, Skelmersdale. John G., 29, of Windrows, Skelmersdale, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply, after officers found the stash hidden in a child’s pink birthday gift bag in the back of his taxi. The dad-of-one was pulled over by police on Moore Rd, Skelmersdale. When they searched his car they found £275,000 worth of the class A drug next to a child seat in Green’s private hire taxi.

The judge was told Green was a “stranger to serious criminality” and had only agreed to the move after being offered £200, and needing the money having not been working.

Judge Norman Wright said: “Taxis are a good camouflage for moving drugs. But people don’t entrust a stranger with 3kg of valuable drugs, they must have been trust, they had confidence in Mr Green.

“The people who tasked you with this cocaine are at the top of the chain.”

He added that for the drugs to have been  “high quality”, Green was being used very early in the selling process, meaning he would have taken the orders from top drug dealers.

Police discovered three black bags of the drug in the back of Green’s taxi on June 25.

Each one contained around 1000g  of cocaine. Officers noticed that Green was “nervous” and his “hands were shaking” after they stopped his vehicle and began to search it.

Judge Wright noted that Green’s sentence would have been eight years, but he received a reduction in the term after entering an early guilty plea.