A DUNTOCHER man caught with £15,000 in a supermarket carrier bag inside his car has been jailed.

David Grant took the cash after agreeing to act as a middle man in transporting the cash – deemed to be the proceeds of crime.

But police had been tipped off in advance about the transaction, which happened close to Grant’s home in Auchentoshan Avenue – and he was stopped almost as soon as he drove off.

Grant, 28, appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday to be sentenced after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The offence was committed on June 9, 2016.

Grant admitted the charge in January, but a background report from social workers was requested before sentencing.

Fiscal depute Craig Wainwright told the court police received confidential information that there would be a transfer of “a large sum of money” at a car park in Duntocher involving “an associate from an organised crime group”.

He said: “Police attended at about 7.30pm in an unmarked vehicle. At 8.55pm the accused was observed arriving in the car park in a Volkswagen Golf.

“An unknown male approached the driver’s side of the vehicle in possession of an Asda shopping bag. He opened the front passenger door and deposited the bag into the vehicle.

“The male then made off. The accused exited the car park in his vehicle and was stopped almost immediately in Auchentoshan Avenue.

“He was thereafter detained for offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

Police searched the car under warrant and found the carrier bag in the passenger footwell, containing various envelopes full of cash totalling £15,000.

Grant’s solicitor, Ian Brechany, told the court: “This is clearly a very serious offence, and he acknowledges that. He thought he was one step away from illegality, but that was a vain hope from his point of view.”

Mr Brechany said Grant had previously resisted offers to be a courier but eventually, one night in a pub, he changed his mind. Three weeks later he got a call telling him where to go and when.

Mr Brechany told Sheriff Simon Pender: “He had hoped he would never be contacted. He was told he would get a payment, but he never received one.

“He was seen as someone who could be used because of his relatively low profile, but having spoken to police he was compliant with them.

“I would hope your Lordship would agree there has been a lesser amount of culpability, and given that the money was all recovered, and the relatively positive background report on a hard-working young man, you would consider dealing with this without a custodial sentence.”

But Sheriff Pender decided otherwise and jailed Grant for eight months. He told him: “This is a very serious matter involving a significant sum of money deemed to be criminal property.

“Those who are involved in crime at higher levels rely on the likes of you, and such offending must attract deterrent sentences.”