Curtis Warren was convicted of conspiring to import a controlled drug in 2007.

During the two-week trial at the Jersey royal court, the jury were told the 46-year-old had wanted to make the island the latest target in his drug trafficking business.

Warren is said to have amassed a fortune of over £100 million through illegal operations and even made it onto the Sunday Times rich list.

He spent a decade in prison in the Netherlands and was once Interpol’s most wanted drugs trafficker.

Five other men accused of plotting to import drugs into Jersey were also found guilty on Wednesday.

The jury heard how the group had planned to buy large quantities of cannabis in Amsterdam and gather it in a cove on Jersey.

Commenting after the verdicts, Acting Chief Officer of Jersey police David Warcup said: "We hope that the conviction of the men sends out a clear message to others that we will continue to tackle those responsible for the importation of drugs into the island."

The six men have been remanded in custody and are due to be sentenced on December 4th.

The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) will propose at their annual conference later that the prison system is heading for a new crisis, and short-term sentences should be scrapped because they contribute to overcrowding and do not reform criminals.

Some 65,000 out of 100,348 prisoners sentenced in 2008 were given sentences of 12 months or under, therefore the move proposed by the PGA could slash prison numbers by two thirds.

The motion by the PGA concludes: "This association therefore calls on the government to radically review sentencing policy with a view to abolishing immediate custodial sentences of less than 12 months."

The justice secretary, Jack Straw, has frequently argued for increased use of community sentences as an alternative to short prison terms.

Paul Tidball, president of the PGA, says more spending on fewer prisoners would be more effective in tackling serious offender behaviour.

He said: "We really can’t afford, literally, to be locking people up unnecessarily, ineffectually and so pointlessly."

"The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. He was not fit. It is an indictment of our game," said Ferguson.

"You see referees abroad who are as fit as butcher’s dogs. We have some who are fit. He wasn’t fit."

United went behind to an early Darren Bent goal but equalised after the break through Dimitar Berbatov’s overhead kick.

Kenwyne Jones headed Steve Bruce’s team back into the lead, however Anton Ferdinand’s own goal levelled the score in stoppage time after Kieran Richardson was sent off for a second bookable offence.

However the United manager was unhappy with the amount of added time played and claims Wiley was using breaks in the game to have a rest.

"I was disappointed with the referee," said Ferguson.

"He didn’t add on any time for the goal. He played four minutes and two seconds.

"He was also walking up the pitch for the second goal needing a rest. He was not fit enough for a game of that standard.

"He was taking 30 seconds to book a player. He was needing a rest. It was ridiculous."

With Chelsea playing Liverpool on Sunday, United had the chance to move three points clear at the top of the league, however, Steve Bruce’s side were excellent and were unlucky to leave Manchester with only a point.

Sunderland lead at half-time through Darren Bent’s early goal and Kenwyne Jones restored their lead in the second-half after Dimitar Berbatov’s sublime overhead kick had pulled United level.

However with Sunderland reduced to 10-men after Kieran Richardson’s sending off, the champions piled on the pressure and scored in stoppage time through Patrice Evra’s shot which deflected in off Ferdinand.

Sir Alex Ferguson made seven changes from the side that beat Wolfsburg in the Champions League and his team looked disjointed with Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher guilty of misplacing a number of passes in the first half.

Steve Bruce named former United players Phillip Bardsley and Kieran Richardson at full-back with Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones up front as he attempted to beat his old manager for the first time.

And Sunderland made the perfect start when Bent drilled a shot past Ben Foster from the edge of the box after seven minutes. Lee Cattermole fed the ball to Bent 22-yards out and the striker finished confidently to score his seventh goal of the season.

Ferguson’s team failed to find any rhythm in the opening stages and looked vulnerable whenever their attacks broke down.

Sunderland were breaking at pace and Patrice Evra had to make a vital interception to deny Lorik Cana connecting with Andy Reid’s cross.

Sunderland could have extended their lead when Andy Reid swept in a cross for Bent at the back post. The goal scorer elected to head the ball back across goal though and Nemanja Vidic was able to head the ball back to Foster.

After a disappointing first-half Scholes was replaced by Anderson at half-time but it was Ferdinand who almost handed United an equaliser with a weak header back to Craig Gordon. The Scottish keeper blocked Nani’s initial shot and when the ball fell to Wayne Rooney, Ferdinand atoned for his error by blocking the England striker’s effort.

Sunderland could have doubled their lead when Jones almost found Steed Marlbranque with a low ball across the area, however, it was the home side that scored the second goal of the game and drew level.

Gordon saved from Rooney, but Sunderland’s clearance fell to John O’Shea on the right who crossed for Berbatov to score with a spectacular overhead kick.

United were level for less than 10 minutes though with Foster failing to command his penalty area and allowing Jones to head Bruce’s team back into the lead from Reid’s cross.

Rooney came close to equalising after exchanging passes with Berbatov on the edge of the box but his shot flashed inches wide of Gordon’s right hand post.

United struggled to apply any concerted amount of pressure on Sunderland as the final whistle approached though with Ferdinand and Michael Turner blocking shots from Rooney.

They were handed an advantage with five minutes remaining when Richardson received his second yellow card for kicking the ball away and took full advantage when Evra equalised in added time.

Sunderland’s defence failed to clear the ball which fell to the French full-back whose wayward shot deflected in off Ferdinand to deny Bruce’s team the victory they arguably deserved.

Daniel Vettori led his unfancied injury-ravaged side to a five-wicket win, successfully chasing 234.

After losing the toss Vettori said he would be happy to restrict Pakistan to 300, but that was never on the cards once their top order failed.

Ian Butler, brought into the team to replace the injured Darryl Tuffey, who in turn was replacing the injured Jacob Oram, took career-best one-day international figures of 4-44 as Pakistan made a mess of setting a total on a beautiful batting pitch.

The usually superb Mohammad Yousuf never got going and dug his team into a hole by batting slowly in the middle overs, then getting out once the runs needed to come. His painful 45 from 78 balls put the batting side under pressure, and when 19-year-old Umar Akmal was given a bad LBW decision after making an excellent 55, Pakistan lost the plot.

Batsman after batsman got himself out immediately after hitting a boundary, and having hoped for 270 plus Pakistan found themselves floundering on 198-9. It took a brilliant, and unbeaten, last-wicket stand of 35 between numbers 10 and 11 to get them up to 233-9. Saeed Ajmal hit 14 and 17-year-old Mohammad Aamer 19, both at a run a ball.

New Zealand stuttered in reply, with Aaron Redmond’s dismissal on 31 leaving them 71-3. Ross Taylor hit the biggest six of the tournament but otherwise crawled to 38 from 61 deliveries, and New Zealand seemed to struggle to keep up with the rate. Grant Elliott, in particular, was scratching around at a run every two balls.

But it was, in fact, a brilliant strategy from the Black Caps. As the run rate crept up to seven an over they seemed to have thrown the game away, but a well-taken PowerPlay and some superb hitting from Elliott catapulted his strike rate from around 40 to 75 and New Zealand towards the target.

Elliott was dropped with 69 still needed to win, with captain Younis Khan putting down an absolute sitter, and held his nerve to finish on 75 not out.

Vettori deservedly won Man of the Match for adding a run-a-ball 41 to his excellent 3-43 with the ball. He and Elliott put on 104 for the fifth wicket, and the total was reached with two overs to spare.

England could learn from watching New Zealand’s perfectly timed run chase and intuitive use of the PowerPlay. Neither Pakistan nor England have won the Champions Trophy before, but both were left defeated semi-finalists as New Zealand and Australia set up an all-antipodean final.

Burnley, whose home form has been impressive since their arrival in the top flight, claimed all three points thanks to second-half goals from striker Steven Fletcher and defender-turned-midfielder Andre Bikey.

Sebastian Larsson curled home a free-kick late on to give the visiting fans hope, but it turned out to be no more than a consolation.

At the KC Stadium, Hull manager Phil Brown was relieved to see his under-fire side claim an even more vital win as they downed Roberto Martinez’s Wigan.

The Tigers opened the scoring early in the second half as Jan Venegoor of Hesselink headed in Dean Marney’s cross before Geovanni doubled the lead from Kamil Zayatte’s centre with 20 minutes left.

Scott Sinclair pulled a goal back for the visitors, netting the rebound after Jordi Gomez’s shot had been parried by Boaz Myhill but the home side held on despite a nervous finish.

St Helens led 10-6 at the break thanks to scores from Francis Meli and Sean Long with the Warriors’ reply coming from George Carmont.

Meli’s second try but the hosts in control in the second half but a Pat Richards try made for a nervous last ten minutes.

It took just 90 seconds for St Helens to take the lead. Kyle Eastmond raced down the touchline and fed Meli who crossed in the corner for the opening score.

The Warriors went close to a quick reply when Richards touched down in the corner but he was adjudged to have put a foot in touch first.

They had the lead though on 23 minutes when a hanging Sam Tomkins kick was tapped back by Richards and collected by Carmont who crossed under the posts. Richards’ conversion put his side 6-4 up.

Meli almost had the Saints back in the lead but was adjudged to have put a hand in touch before touching down in the corner.

A try on in his last appearance at Knowsley Road was in the script and Long obliged to put his side back in front.

The soon to be Hull player dummied, stepped and twisted his way over the line on 36 minutes. Eastmond’s conversion made the half-time score 10-6.

The Saints came out all guns blazing and finally penetrated the Warriors defence for their third try after a prolonged period of pressure.

Long threw a long pass to winger Meli who finished expertly for his 17th try of the season to make it 14-6 with 49 minutes on the clock.

The Warriors upped the tempo but couldn’t find a way through a stubborn St Helens defence, O’Loughlin and Roberts both coming within inches of getting Wigan back in the game.

With ten minutes to go they finally broke through the Saints defence with a length of the field try to reduce the deficit to four points.

Joel Tomkins broke away and fed Carmont before the ball made its way to Richards who gathered his own chip kick and grounded the ball in the corner.

But it came all too late for the Warriors as the Saints ran down the clock to reach Old Trafford to take on the Rhinos for the third successive year.

In a public letter to Labour party members, Mr Brown said he believes "it is right" to hold debates through a variety of medium in order for Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to present their cases for the upcoming 2010 poll.

The proposed debates would see Mr Brown go up against David Cameron and Nick Clegg on TV to spar over a range of issues.

And the Labour leader said during the weekend: "It is right that the parties debate the issues not just in parliament but in every arena where the public will join in the discussion.

"It is right that we set the issues before the British people.

"Others can work out the details but what’s important for the country is that there is a wide ranging series of television and radio debates with party leaders that are also able to devote attention to the central issues that matter to families: the economy, public services, how we strengthen our communities, and how we work with the rest of the world."

Mr Brown also called on ministers and opposition ministers to indulge in similar debates, although he admitted there should be a "strong focus" on the leaders’ contests.

"I relish the opportunity of making our case directly to the people of this country," the prime minister added.

Lewis Hamilton jumped Jarno Trulli for second at the start using his KERS button, but lost the position to the Toyota driver at the second round of stops and eventually finished in third place.

In the battle of the Brawns, Barrichello finished in seventh, while Button managed to take one valuable championship point for eighth.

All the front-runners, Vettel, Trulli and Hamilton got away well from the grid, but the KERS on the McLaren allowed the outgoing world champion to make up position on the Toyota into turn one.

Championship leader Button got a dreadful start and he fell back down to 11th, just holding off a challenge from the KERS-equipped Ferrari of Fisichella at the first turn.

Vettel had the pace early on, setting fastest lap after fastest lap to draw out a 4.5 second advantage over Hamilton in second and nine seconds over Trulli.

Mark Webber, having started from the pit-lane after a high-speed crash at the Degner Curve during practice forced the Red Bull team to rebuild his chassis, had a disastrous start to the race, pitting three times for three separate problems in the first five laps.

Hamilton elected to start the race on the soft, option tyre in order to maximise his start, but this meant he was unable to drop Trulli.

Meanwhile, Kovalainen in the sister McLaren was heavily fuelled relative to those ahead of him and he had Adrian Sutil in the first of the Force India’s directly behind him on a much lighter fuel load.

Button, having passed Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber, was struggling with oversteer behind this pair, but his dream ticket came on lap 14, when Kovalainen left the door open for the Force India driver at the final chicane.

Sutil lunged up the inside of the McLaren into the first part of the corner, but Kovalainen was unwilling to concede the position and he tapped Sutil into a spin at the exit, gifting Button two crucial places and moving him into the final points-position in eighth.

From this point on, the pit-stops came thick and fast.

Hamilton pitted out of second place and he filtered back out from a clean stop behind Nico Rosberg but ahead of Barrichello.

Trulli then entered the pits one lap later and a clean stop from the Toyota pit-crew got him out back behind Hamilton.

Race leader Vettel was delayed by approximately two seconds in his stop, while his lollipop man held him to allow Nick Heidfeld to pass him in the pit-lane after being criticised for releasing his cars into the path of others.

But, although his stop was longer than his closest challengers, such was Vettel’s lead that he still came out of the pits with a comfortable advantage and he even had Rosberg as a buffer between him and the McLaren until the Williams driver made his first stop on lap 22.

After the first round of stops, Button gained six seconds on those ahead of him and he was just five second adrift of his championship rival on lap 29.

By lap 34, Button had clawed his way up to Rosberg and Kubica, who was catching the championship leader until that point, had his run spoilt by Raikkonen who made his second stop of the day and emerged ahead of the BMW Sauber.

Hamilton lost time at his second stop when he got stuck on his pit-lane limiter for about a second and he subsequently lost second place to Trulli.

Button continued to catch Barrichello after the second round of stops, taking seven tenths out of the Brazilian’s advantage on lap 44 alone.

But, his progress was halted momentarily when the safety car was deployed in response to a crash involving Jaime Alguersuari.

The Toro Rosso rookie got onto the Astroturf on the outside of the high-speed 130R turn, losing control of his car and shooting across the track and into the Armco barrier, throwing debris right across the track.

The safety car pulled into the pits with four laps of racing left, having closed the field up.

Vettel got a good restart, but Hamilton, reporting problems with his KERS unit, looked vulnerable and was under pressure from Raikkonen into turn one.

Kubica got right up behind Button into the hairpin, putting the Brawn driver under pressure for that final world championship point while trying to defend his position from Alonso.

Vettel pulled out another comfortable lead to take the victory over Trulli and Hamilton, and the Brawns took three points in total, taking the championship battle on to Brazil.

The Scottish striker put his side into a 2-0 lead within 15 minutes with Celtic’s defence looking shaky.

Aiden McGeady pulled a goal back from the penalty spot but despite dominating possession for large spells of the game the Bhoys couldn’t pull level.

Tony Mowbray – taking part in his first Old Firm derby as manager – handed China captain Zheng Zhi his Celtic debut and welcomed back Glenn Loovens to partner Stephen McManus with left-back Lee Naylor replacing the injured Danny Fox.

Shaun Maloney had an early chance for the visitors when Andrew Little failed to clear a cross from Mark Wilson, however, Allan McGregor made a smart save with his legs to clear the danger.

Walter Smith made four changes as he started his four-game touchline ban and named Miller upfront despite concerns over a hip injury. His gamble paid off immediately though as the former Celtic striker put Rangers into the lead inside eight minutes.

Loovens was beaten to the ball by Kris Boyd and with McManus out of position Miller was free to run through the Celtic defence and place the ball past Artur Boruc.

The game continued at a frantic pace as Celtic looked for a quick response and Weir was lucky not to concede a penalty when he appeared to trip Maloney in the box.

Mowbray’s team had dominated possession since the opening goal, but it was another mistake by Loovens that allowed Miller to score again. The Dutch defender allowed a long ball to bounce on the edge of the Celtic box where Miller was on hand to fire his team into a commanding lead.

Celtic were handed a lifeline when Sasa Papac brought down Zhi on the right of the box. McGregor got a hand to Aiden McGeady’s penalty but failed to stop the ball creeping into the right-hand corner of the net.

The Rangers midfield struggled to maintain possession as half-time approached but Celtic couldn’t create an equalising opportunity with Steven Naismith heading Naylor’s dangerous free-kick clear of danger.

Nacho Novo forced a corner immediately after the restart and David Weir should have done better when he got his head to Steven Smith’s corner and sent the ball high over the bar.

Smith’s side were sharing much more of the possession and Miller almost completed his hat-trick with a shot from the left of the Celtic box which drifted a yard wide.

Scott McDonald had the chance to equalise as the visitors sprung down the other end of the pitch but his shot on the turn was straight at McGregor.

Celtic continued to build momentum as they introduced Georgios Samaras on the hour mark and McGregor got down well to save McGeady’s low 30-yard drive.

Maloney had the best chance to equalise from Wilson’s low cross but failed to find the target as he shot wide from six-yards out.

Rangers began to rally in the last quarter of an hour and looked particularly dangerous on the break with Whittaker curling in an inviting cross from the right which Novo was inches away from reaching at the back post.

Novo had another chance a moment later as he attempted to lift the ball over Boruc, but the Celtic keeper was able to tip the ball over.

Celtic pinned Rangers back in the final minutes of the game but Smith’s team held on to move to within a point of their fiercest rivals at the top of the Scottish Premier League.