[A] JUDGE has ruled that more than £1,000 cash seized from a heroin courier when police stopped him near Carlisle should be confiscated.
Officers detained a “furtive” and “fidgety” James Duffy as he travelled north on the M6 to Scotland on May 2.
Two packages containing heroin potentially worth £220,000 were found hidden under some musical equipment in his vehicle.
Duffy, 46, was locked up for six years and nine months at Carlisle Crown Court last month, after he admitted possessing the class A drug with intent to supply.
His case was mentioned again at the crown court this morning (FRI), when the prosecution announced that the matter had been reviewed by a financial investigator. It was concluded that there would be no proceedings brought under the Proceeds of Crime Act which targets criminals’ ill-gotten gains.
Instead, there was an application that £1,050 cash – also found by police in Duffy’s possession following the M6 stoppage – should be surrendered by him.
Paul Tweddle, defending, confirmed there was no objection to the order, and that Duffy, of Mossneuk Street, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, had consented to it.
Recorder Kevin Grice ordered that the money should be forfeit.
