A MOTORIST with a false identity document was caught red handed transporting cannabis worth £100,000 along the M6 near Carlisle.

Mirjam Kovaci, 22, was stopped by the police as he dove a Volvo S60 car on the M6 near to Southwaite Services on Thursday, February 2, Carlisle Crown Court heard. The defendant later admitted three offences.

They were: possessing a false identity document, possessing class B cannabis with intent to supply, and possessing cocaine.

Outlining the facts, prosecutor Andrew Evans said that when the police officers initially stopped and spoke to Kovaci, he failed to give them his real name. “He passed forward a Croatian ID card,” said Mr Evans.

While the picture on the ID card was genuinely of the defendant, an Albanian national who was brought illegally to the UK when he was aged just 14, the name on the ID card was false.

It was as the police were checking the driver’s identity that Kovaci volunteered his real name and confirmed the ID card was fake.

Noticing a strong smell of cannabis emanating from the car, the police officers searched the Volvo and found ten packages containing the cannabis. The total amount of the class B drug found was 10.83kg, said Mr Evans.

Officers also found £130 cash and, in the pockets of a Moncler coat, two wraps of cocaine – an amount consistent with personal use. Edmund Potts, for Kovaci, said the defendant wished to express his remorse for the offending.

“He’s a young man who was in over his head,” said the barrister. “He had a text requesting that he drive these drugs [to a location] and he simply did as instructed. He was low down the pecking order.

“He stood to gain financially, but only by the sum of £150… He was essentially just the delivery driver, performing a limited function under direction.”

Passing sentence, Recorder Julian Shaw said he accepted that Kovaci had suffered a “degree of trauma” after he was brought to the UK as a 14-year-old, being separated from his family.

To his credit, he had mastered English to a high degree.

The Recorder told Kovaci: “I accept that you had little influence on those above you in the chain. Nevertheless, you became involved in the transportation of a significant amount of cannabis.

“You must have had some awareness or understanding of the scale of the operation in which you voluntarily yourself engaged.”

The defendant, of Wheeley’s Lane, Birmingham, was jailed for 16 moths and told that he may face “automatic deportation” following his release from that jail term, which is likely to be at the half way stage of his sentence.