A CRIMINAL cash courier who was caught after he accidentally left a bag containing £10,000 on a train at Carlisle railway station has been given an 11-month prison sentence.

Weijie Shi, a 25-year-old who was living in the UK illegally, was seen to suddenly get off a Glasgow to Manchester southbound service after it had pulled into the city's railway station on November 20 last year, Carlisle Crown Court was told.

After the unattended bag and a phone he’d left on board were spotted, passengers saw him on the platform and tried, unsuccessfully, to attract his attention.

After the train pulled away, Shi told a staff member he’d been separated from his belongings.

He then boarded a train back to Glasgow. In the meantime the bag that he had mislaid was found.

But when a conductor opened it to check for something that may identify the owner, he found that the bag was crammed full of cash.

British Transport Police later confirmed that the there was a total of £10,000 inside.

Shi, of no fixed address, was traced from CCTV footage and initially gave a fake name which matched a false passport in his possession. He later admitted charges of having an identification document with improper intention, and possessing criminal property.

When Shi appeared in court, Judge Nicholas Barker told him he was clearly a “courier' moving cash linked to crime, working for others; and that he was in the country illegally and had not lodged an asylum claim because he was awaiting the outcome of his case.

Imposing an immediate jail term, the judge said: “You are not of settled status.

"You have no previous convictions recorded against you in this country.

“Those who possess false identity documents in this country can expect a custodial sentence.”

But after learning Shi - assisted in the court dock by a Mandarin interpreter - had already spent six months in custody while waiting for his case to come to court, Judge Barker told him: “It seems likely from what I have been told that your release will either be today or very soon."

There was no indication of who the defendant was working; nor was it revealed how the money was raised. It will almost certainly be kept by the authorities to help fund fighting crime.