JUSTIN St John Pugh completed the ignominious plunge from member of the Queen's elite bodyguard to convicted drug smuggler yesterday.

However, it is not the first time the 27-year-old former Household Cavalry guard has appeared in the media in connection with alleged drug offences.

Along the road, which ended with six years in prison for Pugh yesterday, he had already achieved notoriety as the man who claimed that during his time with the Household Cavalry - which provides the Queen's last line of security on public occasions - a third of the regiment regularly used drugs.

Pugh's allegations of the Queen's elite bodyguards indulging in drug binges before going out to escort the Queen's carriage along the Mall, and smoking cannabis before Trooping the Colour, were rejected by the Army at the time.

Last night, an Army spokesman again reiterated that none of Pugh's claims had been substantiated by an investigation at the time.

He added: ''The Army views drug abuse extremely seriously which is why we introduced compulsory drug testing in the armed forces in January 1995. It has served its purpose in cutting out any drugs use there may have been, but also by showing that there was no evidence of widespread drug misuse in the Army. Justin Pugh left the Army in 1992 and his allegations were dealt with at the time.''

During the court in Edinburgh yesterday, Pugh's lawyer said the ex-soldier had occasionally used cannabis and taken ecstasy twice.

This, however, is at odds with Pugh's claims in 1996 that he and other Household Cavalrymen regularly took cocktails of drugs including ecstasy, LSD, cannabis and solvents before going on duty.

He said: ''People thought we were bored sitting still on the horses but we weren't - we were stoned. I can remember getting stoned before we went to Buckingham Palace and feeling high as a kite while we lined the stairs. I must have guarded the Queen on loads of occasions as she rode in her carriage and sometimes we would be stoned.

''We were the last line of defence and we could hardly ride. Other times we smoked cannabis before we went to Buckingham Palace.

''I would sometimes take two or three ecstasy tablets a night, but that was nothing - I knew soldiers who took up to six.''

Pugh, an accountant's son who joined the Army when he was 16, served as a member of the Household Cavalry for six years before leaving the Army in 1992. Pugh was intercepted by customs officers at Glasgow airport as he tried to pass through the ''nothing to declare'' gate, after flying from Alicante, Spain, last November.