[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-22846565

A drug-dealing great-grandmother, who had been on the run for 12 years, has been jailed for more than four years.

Diane Gibson, 72, the grandmother of Big Brother winner Josie Gibson, was arrested in April in Yate, South Gloucestershire.

She was convicted in 2000 of possessing cocaine with intent to supply, but did not turn up at court for sentencing.

A judge at Bristol Crown Court sentenced her to four years and three months in prison.

Gibson was originally arrested in September 1998 at Membury services on the M4 near Swindon with 2.9kg of cocaine in the boot of her car.

It had an estimated street value at the time of £240,000, the court was told.

The court heard she had collected the drugs from a car park in Orpington, Kent.

Josie Gibson Josie Gibson was in court to see her grandmother sentenced
Jailing her, Judge Jeffrey Mercer said: "I sentence you on the basis you were a courier of this amount of cocaine.

"I take into account your age and I treat you as a person of good character and I take into account what I have read about your health.

"This is not the easiest of sentencing exercises but in my judgement the very least sentence which is appropriate for an offence of possession of cocaine with intent to supply is one of four years' imprisonment."

He also sentenced her to a further three months' in jail for being on the run for the past 12 years.

Josie Gibson, 28, who won Big Brother 11 three years ago, was in court to see her grandmother sentenced.

Speaking outside court she said the jail term was "Such a relief."