A BANNED lorry driver from Mansfield who stole spirits worth £500,000 and then claimed he was hijacked has been jailed for 12 months.

Russell Dyer, 41, claimed his lorry was hijacked by a man who looked like Jack Sparrow, the character played by Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.

But Dyer, who was arrested nine months later after going on the run, eventually admitted carrying out the theft to pay off gambling debts.

Lincoln Crown Court heard Dyer picked up the 1,600 cases of whisky and other spirits from three depots in Scotland.

Despite being a banned driver he had paid £1,200 for a forged driving licence which he used to get a job with Boston-based hauliers Benton Bros.

Dyer was due to take the spirits to Immingham docks where they were to be exported to Norway.

But instead he went on the run after his empty trailer was found abandoned on the A63 near Selby in Yorkshire last August.

A tracker device fitted in his tractor unit showed he had taken an unusual route out of Scotland.

The unit was also later found abandoned in Newark, but Dyer disappeared and went on the run.

The stolen spirits were eventually found by Derbyshire police in Eckington near Chesterfield among a £7m haul of stolen goods.

Dyer was arrested in April this year after police tracked him to an address in Mansfield.

He then claimed his trailer had been hijacked on the M6 by a "Jack Sparrow lookalike" armed with a Samurai sword.

But after several more interviews with detectives he eventually admitted carrying out the theft to pay off gambling debts,

Andrew Scott, prosecuting, said Dyer had been working for Benton Bros for several months despite being disqualified from driving by Mansfield magistrates.

Mr Scott said: "The wholesale value of the spirits was £168,000 but the police put the retail value at £500,000."

Dyer, of Alcock Avenue, Mansfield, admitted stealing 1,613 cases of spirits, possessing a false driving licence and making a false representation between May and August last year.

Passing sentence Record Wiliiam Harbage, QC, told Dyer it had been a serious breach of trust.

"You should not have been working as a lorry driver," the judge said. "During the course of that fraud you stole a load of spirits with a retail value of £500,000."

Colin Hart, in mitigation, said: "Dyer lost more money than he won while gambling and the people he owed wanted to be paid.

"He was being threatened day after day."

Afterwards Det Con Adam Petty said: "I am pleased justice has finally caught up with Dyer after he went on the run.

"It was obviously a planned and organised crime for which Dyer was the main catalyst."