Briton jailed for having Ecstasy

A BRITISH tourist was sentenced yesterday to three months in jail for possession of seven Ecstasy tablets.

Kieran Dennis Hambly, a 23-year-old builder from Cornwall, had pleaded guilty to having the drugs.

He was arrested last week when police, intent on busting a suspected drug ring operating out of the Ayia Napa hotel where Hambly was staying, rushed into the hotel’s lobby in the early hours of the morning.

Convinced police had come looking for him, Hambly quickly tossed the bag of Ecstasy tablets into a flowerpot — unaware that standing right next to it was a plain-clothes police officer.

Police initially thought Hambly was part of a British ring they believed had come to Cyprus to sell drugs.

But Hambly’s lawyer denied his client had any such connection. He said Hambly had merely come to Cyprus with his girlfriend, had never taken drugs before, and had no previous convictions for any criminal offence.

His lawyer said the couple had been drinking at pubs in Ayia Napa’s main square when a stranger convinced Hambly to buy the drug.

Hambly, his lawyer said, had kept all seven tablets in his pocket for three days after buying them because, after sobering up, he realised he had no desire to try the drug.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.