The Ministry of Justice will pay out 8,400 euros to a French tradesman who was wrongly imprisoned for two months in Spain.

Incredibly, the forensic test carried on his van-load of soap confused it with cocaine…

Jacques Benoit Fiocconi demanded 83,000 euros in compensation for financial and non-material damage, but the Ministry decided that it was only worth 8,400 euros.

Jacques had been arrested in November 2012 on a motorway in Cataluña. Accompanying him was his father, who just happened to be a former drug trafficker, associated with Pablo Escobar.

They had just bought 2,850 bars of soap and were heading towards the French border when a Civil Guard patrol pulled them over.

The police carried out a rudimentary test on five of the bars which gave a positive result for cocaine so they were sent to prison on suspicion of drug smuggling on November 23, 2012. There they languished until the official forensic test a full two months later.

(News: Spain)