A MAN who was charged with dealing with goods of fraudulent intent and possessing cannabis with intent to supply to another has been found not guilty by a jury.

Shan Gao was cleared of the charges after a three-day trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

He had pleaded not guilty to both counts.

During the trial, the court heard that on July 21, an airfreight consignment was delivered to Heathrow.

It had been sent by a ‘fictitious company’ from Richmond in Canada to an address in Glasgow that was then changed to Unit 42, Victory Park, Mill Street, Failsworth.

The package purported to contain mechanical machinery but in fact had 155kg of cannabis stashed inside along with fragranced tumble dryer sheets to disguise the smell.

Boarder officials removed the drugs, and the consignment was restored to its original appearance and sent to the Failsworth unit.

On July 23, at around 1pm, the package was delivered, and CCTV footage shows Shan Gao waiting for the package in a black Volkswagen Passat.

In the footage Shan helps the delivery driver remove the crates from the truck and appears to take a photo of the delivery with his phone.

At just after 5pm that day police cut through the Failsworth container’s padlocks and found a cutter and scales with traces of cannabis on them and Shan’s fingerprints.

The container also had a strong smell of cannabis.

Police officers then went to a car park next to a block of flats named Lakeside Rise in Blackley, Manchester where they found Shan next to a black Volkswagen Passat and arrested him.

Officers searched Shan and found a mobile phone, keys to the car, and a further set of keys including house keys.

The keys were later found to fit the padlocks at Unit 42 and the door to a flat in the Lakeside complex where around 33kg of cannabis bush was found and three toothbrushes including one with Shan’s DNA on it.

On Thursday, the 54-year-old took to the stand to give evidence and told the court he only lived in the flat for four weeks from mid-January to mid-February 2020 to isolate from his wife who had caught Covid.

He said his friend of more than three years, who he referred to as Mr Wen, allowed him to live there.

Shan described Mr Wen as the ‘chairman of the Chinese community’ who ‘helped him survive’ in the country by giving him ‘odd jobs’, including work in takeaways.

He told the court that Mr Wen said he would introduce him to more jobs if he helped with the collection of the delivery on July 23.

Shan insisted that he thought he was helping with a delivery of tobacco and had no idea he was collecting drugs or that there was cannabis in the flat.

The following day the defence and prosecution made their closing statements to the jury who returned on Monday (April 25) to deliberate and give their verdict.