Three people who were involved in a plot to send £4.3 million worth of crystal meth to Australia has lost his appeal. 

Yvonne Stewart, 55, from Croydon, worked together with Kevin Filkins, 54, from Sevenoaks, and Robert Hamilton, 53, from Orpington, to send the drugs from London to New South Wales.  

An investigation was launched after 24 kilograms of crystal meth was seized by Australia’s Border Force upon arrival from the UK.  

It was established that the drugs had been sent from Croydon on June 25, 2021, with CCTV images identifying Stewart, who was a corrupt insider, carrying out the security inspection of the package.  

Yvonne Stewart was a corrupt insider in the cargo sectorYvonne Stewart was a corrupt insider in the cargo sector (Image: Met Police) They were each convicted of fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the exportation of goods by a jury at Croydon Crown Court and in May they were jailed.  

Filkins and Stewart were each jailed for 12 years, while Hamilton was sentenced to 12 years and six months. 

Robert Hamilton, 53, from Orpington Robert Hamilton, 53, from Orpington (Image: Met Police) All three then applied for leave to appeal against the conviction, but on July 11 this was rejected. 

Lord Justice Elis said their appeals centred on “relatively minor” decisions made by the judge. 

“They do not for a moment suggest to us that these convictions were anything other than wholly safe, and the applications for leave are, as we have said, refused,” Lord Ellis said. 

A court previously heard that CCTV images also captured Filkins sending the drug shipment, which was labelled ‘two glass Buddhas’. 

The package did not contain anything except unconcealed crystal meth. 

Phone records showed that Hamilton had acted as the middleman between Filkins and Stewart. 

The trio had sent two other shipments to Australia in June, and the named senders on each were individuals who had their passports stolen. 

One of the stolen passports was recovered in a search of Filkins’ home.