A DAD who imported thousands of pounds worth of hard drugs from Holland has been jailed for three years and nine months.

Tobias Nicholls initially claimed that the ecstasy and cocaine had been posted to him by accident, after he bought a consignment of cannabis last August.

But after a judge told him he wouldn't get more than four years if he admitted what he had done the 29-year-old changed his pleas to guilty.

Tim Akers, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court Nicholls was caught after two suspicious parcels were intercepted at a Yodel depot in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

In one of them he said police found 396 grams of cannabis resin which could have been worth up to £1,695 in Dutch prices.

And the other contained 123 ecstasy pills, 20.4g of MDMA, which is ecstasy in crystal form, and 15g of cocaine, worth a total of about £3,000 in the Netherlands.

Both packages were addressed to his home in Chippenham but did not have a name on them.

The police then found that he had made numerous calls to two numbers in Holland and had also sent £500 to the continent by Moneygram.

Mr Akers said the money he sent was clearly not enough to buy even one of the two packages of the drugs and must be seen as a balancing payment.

Nicholls, of Dover Street, Chippenham, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on Wednesday August 24, last year.

He initially denied the three charges relating to ecstasy and cocaine claiming he had not expected to receive them.

After a trip to Amsterdam he said he wanted some cannabis sent to him and had ordered, and paid for, with the hard drugs arriving as a surprise.

The court heard he had a number of previous convictions including criminal damage and possessing cannabis.

Peter Binder, defending, said he accepted he was facing a jail term for what he had done.

He said he was a family man with a partner and two young children, one of whom has epilepsy, and would miss him while he was away.

"He is remorseful fro an isolated incident which on many view was rank stupidity on his part. It was bound to fail," he said.

Passing sentence Judge Robert Pawson said "At some stage in July or August last year you decided that you were going to import drugs to this country from Holland.

"The way things came to light was two parcels you imported came to police attention. Both were addressed to Dover Street where you were living.

"Had you fought it you would have got five years or more. For what it is worth I think it is highly unlikely that a jury would have been hoodwinked by your explanation: that a drug dealer in Holland would accidentally send you thousands of pounds worth of drugs."