AN EDEN Valley man who had drugs hidden in his underwear when police stopped the car he was travelling in has been fined.

Christopher Turnbull-Allen, 35, committed the offence on May 30, Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard. The defendant, of Westgarth Court, Kirkby Stephen, pleaded guilty to possessing the class B drug mephedrone.

Prosecutor Pam Ward said the defendant was a passenger in a Volvo which was stopped in the town. Police first searched the car with no result.

“A further search [carried out later] found two snap-bags in the defendant’s underwear,” said Mrs Ward. One contained mephedrone worth £40 and the other carbonic soda. The defendant was last in court on April 8 for drug driving.

Jeff Smith, defending, said the defendant, a self-employed builder, had admitted that drugs were a problem for him and he wished to tackle this.

Magistrates imposed a £233 fine, with £85 costs and a £34 victim surcharge. That debt will be added to his existing fines account, which currently amounts to a debt of around £2,000.