Churchill's great-grandson jailed over multi-million pound drugs operation

The sentence means Nicholas Jake Barton, 34, will be eligible for parole in February, in time to visit his dying mother in England.

Arabella Spencer Churchill, daughter of Sir Winston's son Randolph, has pancreatic cancer and is not expected to live beyond April.

Barton, who emigrated to Australia at 18, sublet a property in the Sydney suburb of Coogee in 2006 to New Zealander Rees Woodgate.

A police raid a few weeks later found 10kg of ecstasy tablets and the ingredients and equipment for making the drug.

Barton, who at the time was living 500 miles away in the resort of Byron Bay with his wife and stepdaughter, said he had not known what Woodgate planned.

But he admitted "to my utter regret" that he took no action once he found out.

Judge Colin Charteris, who could have jailed Barton for ten years, told the court in Sydney he played only a "belated and limited role" in the operation and did not benefit financially.

The sentence of three years, with a minimum term of 20 months, was backdated to June last year when Barton was arrested.

The former marine biology student, who once ran a pearl farm, will be eligible for early release in mid-February.

The judge said he should then be allowed to leave the country.

Judge Charteris said Barton's relationship to Sir Winston had not come into consideration. He said: "The fact the defendant is descended from a hero of the 20th century does not affect the sentence."