TWO men stopped in a speeding van containing £32,000 worth of cannabis have been jailed.
Police constables on mobile patrol stopped the Mercedes vehicle at Southwaite Services, between Carlisle and Penrith, after seeing it going too fast, southbound, on the M6.
Liam Alan Jowett, 35, was driving the van, and 36-year-old David Samuel Corkhill was the front seat passenger seat having gone along for the cross-border ride.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how officers found 3.2kg of skunk cannabis, which had an estimated street value of £32,000, in bin bags. And £4,460 in Scottish and English notes, was seized from the glove box.
The two men – former brothers-in-law – admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply – Jowett at an earlier stage of the court proceedings – and the possession of criminal property.
They were sentenced at the crown court this morning.
Jowett, of Fernhill Close, Bootle, Merseyside, was locked up for 15 months, while Corkhill, of Olympia Street, Kensington, Liverpool, was jailed for a year.
Recorder Kevin Grice said: “In effect, the two of you were transporting a substantial amount of drugs and criminal money from Scotland to England on behalf of, clearly, professional criminals.”
“You were caught,” the judge added, “and must now accept the consequences.”