A DISTRICT judge has approved the forfeiture of almost £80,000 suspect cash found in the car of a motorist stopped on the M6 in north Cumbria.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate court, Cumbria Police lawyer Gail Heard outlined how the cash was seized on October 24 last year by officers who pulled over a Mercedes car at Southwaite Services during the driver's south-bound journey.

A search of the car revealed £79,085, stuffed into plastic packages.

Among that packages was a separate bag, containing counterfeit notes with a face value of £1,769, the court heard. Miss Heard told the court that police believe the money was the proceeds of crime: drug offences, money laundering, or counterfeiting.

“It is clear that there is no identifiable legitimate source for the money, despite initial representations [by the car driver]”, said the lawyer.

Approving the Proceeds of Crime application for the money to be forfeited, District Judge John Temperley said the driver, who was legitimately using his brother’s car, could give no reasonable explanation for the cash.

The money – predominantly in Scottish notes - was bundled into sealed plastic packets in a way that legitimate cash is not normally stored. The judge noted that the M6 is often used to transport drugs and drugs cash.

District Judge Temperley said: “There is strong evidence that this same vehicle had made 24 journeys between Scotland and Manchester since April of 2022. The stays in Manchester had been short.

The claims of the car driver that the money was legitimate – and to have derived from his clothes selling business – simply did not stand up to scrutiny. 

“For all those reason,” said the judge, “I conclude that this money is recoverable property and is likely to be money derived from unlawful activity – probably the supply of controlled drugs, or money laundering, or the supply of counterfeit currency, or indeed a combination of all those activities.”

The driver of the car involved, who hails from Glasgow, was not at court for the hearing.