A man has avoided jail after being found in a car with £14,000 of drugs — and a lamb named Pablo who was eating chips in the back seat.
John McNeil, 56, was a passenger in Lindsey Sangster’s Volkswagen Golf when police stopped it on the M74 motorway near Glasgow on the evening of 22 April 2023. Sergeant Nick Twigg told jurors: “There was a lamb found in the back of the car.” When he asked where it came from, McNeil said Sangster was a “trainee shepherdess”. There was no evidence of that — but there was a lamb, eating a bag of chips left on the back seat.
A police dog called Billy
A police dog named Billy searched the car and found £4,640 of cocaine and £10,050 of heroin concealed beneath the front passenger seat in two separate bags. Glass pipes were also found. The lamb, fortunately, had not got into the drugs.
Pablo belonged to North Lanrigg Farm in Motherwell, owned by farmer Kirsty Mair, who had not authorised the pair to take him. McNeil and Sangster claimed they had rescued Pablo from a dangerous position in the middle of the road on a journey home to Ayrshire. The court heard the lamb was named after Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. After the seizure, Pablo was taken to a farm in Ayrshire for 48 to 72 hours before being returned to Mair, in fine health and settled with her other lambs.
Sentencing, three years on
McNeil and Sangster were found guilty in September 2026 at Glasgow Sheriff Court of possession of heroin and diamorphine with intent to supply. On 2 November 2026, Sheriff Tony Kelly sentenced McNeil to 300 hours of unpaid work and six months of electronic monitoring, requiring him to remain indoors between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. His defence lawyer said he now works as a team leader at a construction company and was at the height of his addiction at the time of the arrest.
Sangster, 41, did not appear for sentencing, and a warrant was granted for her arrest. A charge of resetting the lamb was withdrawn by the Crown during the trial, as there had been no reported theft at the time. Pablo, meanwhile, avoided jail entirely — which, given that eating chips is not a crime, seems only fair.
Sources: BBC Scotland, 2 Nov 2026; Motherwell and Wishaw Today, 2 Nov 2026; The UK Pulse, 2 Nov 2026; Odd News, 3 Nov 2026.
