MAGISTRATES have approved two more police applications for the continued detention of “suspicious” cash that was seized from motorists using the M6 in north Cumbria.

The first application related to a cash seizure made on May 14 when officers in an unmarked police vehicle noticed a southbound Citroen C4 driving through a section of roadworks at “excessive speed”between Junctions 43 and 42.

The car was traveling at “well above” the 60mph speed limit for the roadworks, a Cumbria Constabulary financial investigator told Carlisle's Rickergate court. 

After the officers stopped the car to speak to the driver, the man confirmed his name and said he was a telecoms engineer from South Shields. He was on his way home after working in Glasgow, he claimed.

“He appeared nervous and would not give precise details of who he’d worked for or where,” said the investigator.

The police officer decided to search the man’s car and found a plastic bag underneath the front passenger seat, and inside this was a large quantity of cash, confirmed to be £30,000.

The money consisted of Scottish bank notes.

When asked about the cash, the driver said it was not his and signed a disclaimer form. Magistrates approved the continued detention of the cash so that police can continue to investigate its origins.

In the second application, the same financial investigator outlined how officers stopped another car, a Mini Cooper, after seeing the driver overtake several other vehicles at a speed of 85mph just before Junction 42 on the M6 at 11.30am on May 15.

The police officer indicated that the car should pull over.

But as the driver was slowing down, the officer noted that he bent over the front passenger seat. When stopped, he quickly got out of the car, as if he was panicking. He told the police he had travelled from Manchester to Glasgow for an overnight stay.

“He appeared nervous and gave vague answers,” said the investigator. As a result, the officer searched the car, finding £11,000 in a bag underneath the front passenger seat.

The man, from Leigh, in Lancashire, changed his story a number of times, saying variously that the money was from his grandmother’s house, and then that it was the proceeds of a car sale in Manchester, despite the cash being in Scottish bank notes.

“The officers did not believe his explanations,” said the investigator.

Magistrates approved the continued detention of the money for a six-month period so that police can continue to investigate where it came from.

As with the previous case, they concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the money was the proceeds of, or intended for use in, crime.