Former Bradford pub landlord Kevin Quill has won backing from a British diplomat in the Thai courtroom battle to clear his name.

The diplomat told a court in Pattaya that Thai police had admitted framing Quill when they arrested him 18 months ago on a drugs charge.

Quill, former landlord of the Fighting Cock pub in Bradford, was arrested on his way to the airport and found to have a suitcase full of contraband cigarettes. Amphetamines were found in one of the cigarette packets but Quill maintains he was set up by his business partners.

British Embassy officials demanded meetings with Thai police after learning that Quill, a millionaire, was being stripped of his assets by his business partners while he was stuck in jail.

And Thai police not only admitted the set-up but apologised, said Deryck Fisher, the Bangkok-based British Consul. He added that police in Bangkok concluded there was 'no substance to the allegations' against Kevin Quill -- who was arrested in the Thai resort of Pattaya two years ago.

The case is unusual as it is Foreign Office policy not to intervene in the judicial systems of other countries. Despite this, Mr Fisher wrote a letter to the court in Pattaya confirming the police admission.

Quill, 39, had shortly before his arrest invested heavily in a hotel and bar business in Pattaya with two Scotsmen named in court as Gordon May, 60, from Edinburgh and James Lumsden, 54, from Falkirk.

On 12 October 2000 he was stopped on the way to Bangkok airport. He was taking 200 cartons of Benson & Hedges cigarettes back to the UK. These had been supplied to him by Gordon May and a Thai policeman, he earlier told the court. Inside one cigarette packet police found 100 amphetamine tablets.

A translator used by the British Embassy told the court that Quill was framed and that a Sergeant Vinai was involved. Sergeant Major Vinai Yuyadmaak was, according to documents presented to the court, a frequent visitor at Boyz Boyz Boyz, a male go-go complex owned by Lumsden and May.

The court was also shown a British newspaper cutting reporting that a previous investor with May and Lumsden, Scot Ian MacDonald, had died in a fire in their hotel in 1990. The fire was restricted to one room.

The case was adjourned. If Quill is found guilty of drugs possession, he faces up to ten years in jail.