FORTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD Valerie McDowall has been handed a suspended prison sentence and told to carry out work in the community after she imported Class-C drugs from India.

The defendant, of Anchor Road, Longton, pleaded guilty to two charges of fraudulent evasion of a prohibition which related to the importation of 1,500 diazepam tablets and 1,400 nitrazepam tablets on March 17 last year.

Prosecutor Paul Spratt told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court yesterday a package from Goa addressed to McDowall was intercepted at the National Sorting Office in London. It was opened and the drugs were found.

McDowall's home was searched and police found evidence of 14 money transfers from McDowall to India totalling £2,234 between May, 2007 and February, 2008.

The defendant admitted she had been to Goa nine times and told police she owed money there for accommodation and a damage to a hire vehicle.

Judge Paul Glenn sentenced McDowall to four months in prison, suspended for two years, with two years' supervision and 80 hours unpaid work.

He told her: "The drugs from Goa had a potential street value in this country of £1,400. You transferred monies to that part of the world. My strong suspicion is you were buying these drugs to sell for a profit but there is insufficient evidence for me to be sure of that.

"They are Class-C drugs. I sentence you on the basis they were not for profit, but your own use.

"If it was proved you were making money (by selling the drugs) you would be receiving an immediate custodial sentence of some length."

A proceeds of crime hearing will be held in May.