Ex-Morton player Emmanuel-Thomas released on parole

The 34-year-old was remanded last September and sentenced in June for his involvement in a £600,000 drug smuggling plot.

The ex-footballer was arrested in Gourock in September 2024 after officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) seized 60 kilograms of cannabis as it was being brought through London’s Stansted Airport by two women he had recruited – his girlfriend and her friend.

Emmanuel-Thomas, who had played five games for Morton at the time of his arrest, had his employment terminated by the club after he was charged.

After initially denying the charges, he pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex to fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of cannabis between July 1 and September 2, 2024.

At a sentencing hearing last month, Judge Alexander Mills, jailing Emmanuel-Thomas for four years, said: “It’s through your own action that you will no longer be known for playing professional football.

“You will be known as a criminal. A professional footballer who threw it all away.”

At the hearing, Judge Mills told Emmanuel-Thomas that he would serve no more than approximately a year and seven months of his four-year sentence in custody.

The Telegraph understands that Emmanuel-Thomas has been released this month on ‘home detention curfew’ just over a month after his sentence was officially handed down, due to the nine months the ex-footballer spent on remand at HMP Chelmsford.

The release means the former Livingston and Aberdeen player is subject to strict licence conditions and a curfew, which is enforced by an electronic monitoring tag.

All prisoners are subject to risk assessment prior to release on home detention curfew and are subject to an electronically monitored curfew for a minimum of nine hours a day.

In his sentencing remarks on June 5, Judge Mills said: “The law states that you will serve no more than 40 per cent of that sentence in custody (approximately one year and seven months).

“Any time that you have spent on remand will count automatically towards that sentence. You have been on remand since September of last year, so you have served nearly nine months of that one year and seven months. You will then be released on licence.

“You must comply with the terms of the licence and commit no further offences, or you will be liable to recall to prison to serve a further period in custody.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Offenders released on Home Detention Curfew are subject to strict conditions and will be sent back to prison if they break the rules.”