Police officers stunned by stench of driver’s cannabis stash

Police officers recoiled from the stench of cannabis after stopping a hapless drug dealer as he drove a huge haul between Bradford and Aberdeen.

They were floored by the smell emanating from Jacob Simpson’s vehicle as he rolled down his window to speak to them by the side of the M90 in Perthshire.

It emerged he was transporting a sizeable amount of the class B drug to Aberdeen, where it would have been distributed to unknown dealers.

Perth Sheriff Court heard the drugs weighed 2,000 grammes and had a potential value of as much as £29,000 if broken down into street deals.

Simpson, 26, claimed he had been facing financial difficulties at the time and had been “persuaded” to transport the drugs north.

He was pulled over by officers carrying out vehicle checks as part of a routine patrol after they spotted that he had failed to display an excise licence. The accused, described as “clearly agitated”, swiftly admitted there was “a large bag of cannabis” in the vehicle.

Simpson, of Broadstone Way, Bradford, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis on the M90 while on a journey between Bradford and Aberdeen in April last year.

Sheriff William Wood rejected his pleas for an alternative to custody, telling him: “You undertook this venture with a view to being paid. You knew what you were getting yourself into and what the consequences might be and yet you engaged in transporting a significant amount of drugs.

“It is time to send a message to you that this is not acceptable.”

Simpson was jailed for 19 months.