Indonesia jails Briton in Lindsay Sandiford drug smuggling case Julian Ponder, pictured leaving for his trial in Bali, was found guilty of possessing drugs and fined 1bn rupiah (£65,000). A British man has received a six-year jail term for allegedly receiving cocaine in Indonesia from Lindsay Sandiford. Julian Ponder, 43, reportedly from Brighton, was convicted for his role as an accomplice to 56-year-old Sandiford, who was sentenced to death last week for smuggling cocaine worth £1.59m in her suitcase into Bali. Ponder was found guilty of possessing drugs and also fined 1bn rupiah (£65,000) by a court in Bali. Sandiford, a grandmother from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has notified Indonesian officials she intends to appeal against her sentence. She was accused by the court of damaging the image of the island resort and received the death sentence despite prosecutors seeking only a 15-year jail term. Ponder and Rachel Dougall were arrested alongside Sandiford in a sting operation by Indonesian police in May last year. At the time of her arrest, Dougall, who has a young daughter, insisted she was the victim of a "fit-up" and Ponder claimed he was "trapped." Ponder's lawyer said he was told that Sandiford was delivering a present for his child's birthday and, when he met her to receive the gift, police officers arrested him. Sandiford told the court she became involved because the lives of her children were in danger. In her witness statement, she said: "I would like to begin by apologising to the Republic of Indonesia and the Indonesian people for my involvement. I would never have become involved in something like this but the lives of my children were in danger and I felt I had to protect them. A statement made by the Kent University academic Jennifer Fleetwood, an expert on the coercion of women in the international drug trade, was also read out to the court. She said in her opinion Sandiford had been threatened and coerced into acting as a drugs courier. Reprieve, a charity that seeks to ensure human rights for prisoners, said Sandiford was "vulnerable" and targeted by drug traffickers. The law firm Leigh Day, which is working with Reprieve, said Sandiford had not been properly legally represented since her arrest at Bali airport.