Man Caught With Drugs and a Lamb Named Pablo

A lamb named Pablo was sitting in the back of a Volkswagen Golf eating a bag of chips while police discovered nearly £15,000 worth of cocaine and heroin beneath the front passenger seat. Of all those present, Pablo appears to have made the cleanest getaway.

Police stopped the car on the M74 in Glasgow on April 22, 2023. It was being driven by Lindsey Sangster, with 56-year-old John McNeil in the passenger seat and Pablo occupying the rear, apparently concentrating on the catering.

A police dog found two bags hidden under McNeil’s seat. The cocaine was valued at £4,640 and the heroin, or diamorphine, at £10,050, giving the car’s illegal cargo a combined value of £14,690.

Sergeant Nick Twigg asked Sangster where the lamb had come from. He told the court that McNeil replied that she was a “trainee shepherdess.” When prosecutor Julianna Keenan asked whether there was any evidence to support this explanation, the officer said: “No, the lamb at the time was eating a bag of chips left on the back seat. There were no bottles.”

McNeil and Sangster later said they had found Pablo in the middle of the road and believed he was in a “dangerous position”. McNeil said they were returning to Ayrshire after travelling to Edinburgh to help another man buy a car when they encountered the lamb.

According to McNeil, Pablo appeared “dehydrated” and had not been fed for a couple of hours. He said they intended to “take him back to the owner”, noting that the animal had identification markings on his ears. The chosen restorative meal was evidently chips.

Pablo belonged to farmer Kirsty Mair of North Lanrigg Farm in Motherwell. Agreed evidence confirmed that Mair had not given the pair permission to take him. The lamb was kept at a farm in Ayrshire for between 48 and 72 hours before being returned to her.

A charge of resetting the lamb was dropped during the trial because there had been “no reported theft” at the time. McNeil and Sangster were nevertheless found guilty in September of possessing cocaine and diamorphine with intent to supply.

At sentencing, McNeil’s defence lawyer, Bronwyn Moore, said he had been “at the height of his addiction” when arrested and was now working as a team leader at a construction company. Sheriff Tony Kelly was advised that McNeil, from Fairlie in North Ayrshire, posed a low risk of reoffending.

McNeil avoided prison but was ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work. He was also given a six-month electronically monitored curfew, requiring him to remain indoors from 8pm until 5am.

Sangster, from Kilbirnie, did not attend the sentencing hearing, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. She had previously received 100 hours of unpaid work and an 18-month driving ban for driving under the influence of drugs.

Mair later confirmed that Pablo was in good health back at the farm, where he was happy with “his new pet lamb pals”. His brief spell involving a Golf, narcotics and takeaway potatoes was, mercifully, over.