A CARLISLE man has been jailed after more than £45,000 of criminal cash was found stashed in his bedroom.
Police executed a search warrant at Dylan James Schwencke’s family home at Warnell Drive, Harraby, in July, 2017.
Officers found £45,911 in three separate substantial sums hidden in his bedroom: in a drawer and also in two aftershave containers inside a bed box.
Schwencke, 24, lied to police as he initially sought to give an innocent explanation for the vast sum of cash.
But his lawyer, Karen Tunnacliffe, told Carlisle Crown Court today (THURS) he’d been asked to hold on to the criminal cash by a person of whom he was “in awe and in fear”. He’d done so for about a month and believed he would receive around £1,000 in return at a time when he was not working and struggling for money following a bad moto-cross accident.
“He suspected the money that was given to him was ill-gotten gains,” said Mrs Tunnacliffe. “He didn’t know which type. He suspected it may be from drugs but he asked no questions.”
Schwencke admitted a charge of possessing criminal property, and was jailed for 15 months.
Judge Peter Davies concluded that the defendant must have been “trusted”, and stated: “It is a lot of money from a lot of crime.”
