Former Arsenal striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has been remanded in custody since last year but changed his plea to guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court earlier this month
Footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has pleaded guilty to a cannabis importation charge over an attempt to smuggle £600,000 of the drug through Stansted Airport from Thailand.
The 34-year-old striker was sacked by Scottish Championship side Greenock Morton after his arrest last year. The former Arsenal academy product changed his plea to guilty at a hearing on May 7 and this can now be reported after reporting restrictions were lifted on Wednesday.
Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex to fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of cannabis between July 1 2024 and September 2 2024. He had previously denied the charges when asked to enter a plea in October last year.
The footballer, whose former clubs include Ipswich, Bristol City, QPR, Livingston, Aberdeen and Thai side PTT Rayong, was remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing on a date to be fixed.
Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Road in Gourock, Inverclyde, Scotland, was arrested in the town by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers in September 2024 after the NCA seized an estimated £600,000 of the class B drug as it was being smuggled through Stansted on September 2.
Border Force officers detected roughly 60kg (132lb) of the drug in two suitcases, which had arrived via a flight from Bangkok, Thailand. Co-defendants Rosie Rowland and Yasmin Piotrowska, who both denied the charge, face no further action after prosecutors offered no evidence in their case.
Prosecutor David Josse KC said that “at all material times they maintained both before the events that led to the importation and after the events they said they thought they were importing gold not cannabis”.
Judge Christopher Morgan directed that not guilty verdicts be recorded in the case of Rowland and Piotrowska and they walked free from the dock.
Rowland, 29, of Southend Road, Chelmsford, Essex, and 33-year-old Piotrowska, of Purves Road, Kensal Rise, north-west London, wept after leaving the dock.
Emmanuel-Thomas appeared at Wednesday’s hearing by video-link from Chelmsford Prison. He was asked if he would like to appear at his sentencing in person or by video-link and he asked that it be in person, with the date for this hearing to be set administratively.
The centre forward came through Arsenal’s youth academy and spent three years on their books as a professional between 2008 and 2011. During that period he had loan spells at Blackpool, Doncaster Rovers and Cardiff City.
He was then sold to Ipswich before moving to Bristol City and on to Queens Park Rangers. By 2019 Emmanuel-Thomas was playing for Thai club PTT Rayong but in recent years has turned out for Scottish clubs Livingston, Aberdeen and Greenock Morton.
He also won a number of England underage caps.
