A MAN carrying £15,000 in a plastic bag was arrested by police after they had spotted him acting “suspiciously”.

Rusten Gjoni was walking along Corporation Road in Newport when he attracted their attention, the city’s crown court heard.

The 38-year-old Albanian had arrived in the UK just a few days earlier after being brought into the country illegally by people smugglers.

William Bebb, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was seen behaving suspiciously and was found with £15,000 in bundles of £20 notes.

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“In his police interview he told officers the money was to pay the people who’d helped him to arrive in the UK.

“He said he had been brought into the country in a back of a lorry from Spain where he had been for around four years.

“The defendant refused to say who he owed the money to.”

Gjoni told them he wanted to be reunited with his wife and children who are in the UK and applying for asylum.

He said that the £15,000 had come from two friends who had lent him the money.

The defendant, of no fixed abode, Abertillery, pleaded guilty to knowingly entering the UK without leave on Monday, November 27 last year.

He had also faced been accused of possession of criminal property but that charge was dropped and he was found not guilty of that count.

Sol Hartley representing Gjoni said: “If he would be deported prior to that debt being paid he would face ramifications back in Albania.

“He has had a difficult life. He worked as a labourer in Greece and struggled to make ends meet.”

Mr Hartley added that his client had already been held in custody for four months and had no previous convictions.

Judge Paul Hopkins KC told Gjoni: “This is a serious matter indeed which comfortably passes the custody threshold.

“Such offending will not be tolerated by the courts in this country.”

The defendant was jailed for six months.

The Home Office will decide whether or not Gjoni will be deported after serving his sentence.