A Bradford soldier has been cleared of smuggling £275,000 of heroin into the country after telling a jury the drugs had been planted on him.

Eight packets of heroin were found inside Saeeb Akhtar's Peugeot 406 in December last year when he was stopped at Dover Docks in Kent.

Akhtar, 24, of Undercliffe Lane, Bradford, told a customs officer he served with the Royal Cavalry in Windsor and denied knowing the packages were in his car.

He pleaded not guilty to smuggling the drugs into the UK and was acquitted by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court yesterday.

Akhtar, a former pupil of Carlton Bolling College, told the court in Canterbury that he had gone to Amsterdam to help a friend named Joe whom he had first met when he was stationed in Germany three years ago.

He told the court he had lent Joe £300 after he said he needed to send some money home to his family.

And he added: "I was willing to give him the money because he was a good friend of mine. He had looked after me in Germany. He said I would get a phone call and the money would be given back."

Akhtar said Joe had left his cigarettes in the car and he had given him the keys to get them.

He said: "When I went back to the car things looked normal. I drove back to Calais."

He admitted he had lied to customs officers when they stopped him after he crossed the English Channel and got to Dover.

He said: "I lied because it was a compassionate visit and there was no need for customs to know where I had been. I said I had been to Germany because I thought I had been in Germany.

"I should have said I had been to see my friend, but I said I had been to empty my married quarters out. This was not true.

"It was not right when I said I was based in Windsor, but I had been based there before, and I gave my regiment as Household Cavalry. I just felt there was no need to tell them. I had done nothing wrong."

Speaking at the family home in Undercliffe Lane, Akhtar's father Mohammed Riaz, 44, said he was delighted with the news. Mr Riaz said: "We were very worried, but my son said he was innocent and I believed him."

He said his son, who has served in Iraq, Canada and Germany, had never been in trouble until he was arrested last August on suspicion of "possessing property prepar-atory to terrorism."

Homes in Undercliffe Lane were evacuated during the investigation and the area was cordoned off, but Akhtar was released without charge.

Speaking about the previous arrest, Mr Riaz said: "I think they targeted him because he was a Muslim.

"I understand that they have to find terrorists but my son loves the army and fights for this country. Why would he become a terrorist?

"That time they were just making him a target."