BBC journalist arrested in Singapore on drug charges faces 20 years jail and 15 strokes of the cane

A former BBC journalist faces up to 20 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane after being arrested in Singapore for alleged drug offences.

Peter Lloyd, 41, an Australian who has worked in Britain for the BBC and British Sky News, is said by Singapore authorities to have supplied a Singaporean man with drugs and to have tested positive for amphetamines.

Mr Lloyd is now a well-known face on Australia's equivalent of the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, working from New Delhi as the network's South Asian correspondent.

Police from Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau arrested Mr Lloyd on Wednesday after a tip off.

Last night the bureau said Mr Lloyd had supplied a local man with drugs and he had also been caught with 0.8g of methamphetamine, one smoking pipe and six syringes. A urine test for the drug had also tested positive, said police.

An ABC spokesman said Mr Lloyd was in Singapore on leave from his post in New Delhi.

The network's director of news, John Cameron, said he had been advised by the Foreign Affairs Department that Mr Lloyd had been arrested and was likely to be charged with drug-related offences.

'The ABC has not been told the full details of the case, but we were aware that Peter had been undergoing hospital treatment in Singapore for a serious eye infection which he contracted while on leave,' said Mr Cameron.

Singapore shows no mercy to people convicted of drug offences and anyone convicted of carrying or supplying narcotics judged to be a commercial amount is sent to the gallows, whether they are local people or foreigners.

The scene at the Singapore Subordinate Courts today, where Peter Lloyd faces trial for drug offences

While the amount Mr Lloyd is alleged to have been found with is not a commercial quantity, he faces many years in jail and a lashing with a bamboo cane if convicted.

He joined the ABC in 1988, working in the Sydney TV newsroom for three years before moving to Britain to work for the BBC and British Sky News.

In 2000, he returned to ABC television news and later worked for a radio current affairs programme.

He has been the ABC's South Asia correspondent since 2002 and makes regular TV appearances on news and current affairs stories.