JOHN Gilligan paid €12,000 to get out of Fontcalent prison in Alicante so he could spend Christmas with his English girlfriend. The convicted drug smuggler secured his freedom with the bail deposit less than two months after being caged following his arrest for suspected drugs and weapons offences. The size of the payment the 68-year-old had to make before he was allowed out was revealed today as he began his second week of conditional bail following a successful attempt by his lawyers to rescue him from his cell while the court probe against him continues. Gilligan, arrested on October 20 after a gun was found buried in the garden of his Costa Blanca home, has been banned from leaving Spain and ordered to sign on every fortnight at court as part of his release conditions.