Sorry but have I missed something here? He didn't claim he was a drug smuggler, was caught on what was a very minor offence for which he received a conditional discharge. I'm not a criminal lawyer but i'm sure smugglers would receive much worse, the clue is in the punishment received.
As I posted earlier, about the same time scale ago I was convicted of a minor public disorder offence, and both my police PNC check and a Disclosure Scotland showed no offences of any kinds. Under the laws of the UK once a minor conviction is spent, it does not preclude you from holding a responsible job in aviation.
Alot of people make a silly mistake when they are young, but the majority mature and grow out of their childish whims. I recently secured my first job with just 270 hrs, RHS on jet, modular student with no industry contacts. I was a bit nervous when I first applied for my airside pass, but purely based on unfounded comments from pprune "know it alls"
LewisA, get on with it, thankfully the majority of our society accept human err without the sort of pedantic unfounded response you have received.
Good luck!