A man who denied trafficking drugs but admitted being a courier was jailed for three years and six months and fined €4,000 after he was found in possession of 595 ecstasy pills.

Jeffrey Savage, 29, from Pembroke, was caught by the police on January, 28, 2003, at the Radisson Hotel in St Julian’s following a tip-off by phone about a possible drug deal about to take place outside the hotel.

When officers arrived they found Mr Savage holding an envelope containing the large amount of pills. He later took part in a controlled delivery.

Mr Savage testified the drugs belonged to Glen Gorman, who was arrested in the bust but was in 2010 declared by a court to have been falsly accused of drug trafficking.

The men had known each other for some 15 years. He had rented his flat to Mr Gorman and it was during this period that the latter started keeping drugs at the flat, Mr Savage had claimed.

He further alleged that he was told by Mr Gorman to pick up a plastic bag from Pembroke and take it to the Radisson Hotel.

The matter was compounded by the fact he suffered from depression and ended up in hospital after a suicide bid, he said.

Magistrate Neville Camilleri found Mr Savage guilty of being in possession of the pills in circumstances that denoted they were not for his exclusive use.

In November 2010, after Mr Savage had put the blame on them, Briton Mr Gorman and a Sliema man were cleared of trafficking by a court which found Mr Savage to be an unreliable witness.