A COURT has given Cumbria Police permission to continue holding £15,000 that was found in a carrier bag in a car that was stopped on the M6.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate court, a Cumbria Constabulary financial investigator outlined how the money was found in a Hyundai hire car that appeared to be hogging the middle lane of the motorway.

Police stopped the southbound car just before 10pm on Thursday, February 9 between Junctions 41 and 40 of the M6.

The police officer involved noticed a smell of cannabis emanating from the car’s interior. The driver told police that he had been to Glasgow because he was looking for a spar part for a VW car that he owns.

When police searched the car under misuse of drugs legislation, they found a Kinder egg container with a bag of small white powder while beneath the car’s front passenger seat police found a carrier bag.

The cash – estimated to be around £15,000 – was stuffed inside it. The officer also found a cannabis grinder in the car and empty plastic bags. When questioned further, the driver said somebody had asked him to collect the cash.

He was to be paid £300 for doing that. “But he would not elaborate further,” said the financial investigator. After hearing those details, magistrates granted Cumbria Police permission to continue holding the money for a further  four months.

Detectives believe they have  grounds to suspect that the money is linked to or possibly the proceeds of criminal activity. Police will continue to investigate the money and probably return to court for the money to be forfeited.

The driver of the car, from Rochdale, Lancashire, was not at the hearing and did not formally object to the police application.