A lorry driver was caught trying to smuggle £1.5 million cash out of the country.

Banknotes were hidden in a small car inside his trailer.

Tomasz Nowak, who had been trying to leave the country from Dover, has now been jailed in a money laundering case.

Nowak, was stopped by the Border Force as he queued to board a ferry on March 23.

Officers searched the lorry and found a damaged red Fiat Brava inside the trailer, which Nowak claimed he had forgotten was on board.

A detector dog sniffed out the cash, concealed in bags in the boot of the car.

The banknotes were bound in brown tape and covered up by wheel trims and car mats.

Cash was also found in bags hidden within a piece of machinery, a 3.5 ton lathe.

The banknotes were seized, Nowak was arrested and the case referred to HM revenue and Customs.

Nowak told officers he was expecting to receive 500 euros for moving the money out of the country.

He pleaded guilty to concealing criminal property, contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday last week, April 30.

Nowak, 43, from the town of Rogoźno in Poland, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison.

Anyone with information regarding money laundering should report it online on the web page gov.uk/topic/dealing-with- hmrc/tax-compliance or call HMRCs’ Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.