An unemployed Exeter man who hired a BMW to visit his grandmother was caught with £6,795 worth of cannabis when police stopped him on his way home.
Russell Latham was intercepted by police on the M5 at Sampford Peverel with around 600 grams of the drug which he claimed to be minding for a friend in Sheffield.
He escaped a prison, despite a Judge at Exeter Crown Court rejecting his account as unbelievable and deciding the drugs were destined to be sold on the streets of Devon.
Latham, aged 37, of Woodwater Lane, Exeter, admitted possession of cannabis with intent to supply and was jailed for nine months, suspended for two years.
Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, told him:"You have no previous convictions and I am not going to send you to prison immediately although what you did merits a custodial sentence.
"I do not accept your basis of plea which says you were simply holding these drugs for another. It is totally unrealistic.
"You were given custody of the drugs in Sheffield and were driving down the M5 to Devon where you lived. The concept you were going to take them back and were trusted not to use too much is ludicrous.
"You were arrested in a hired BMW. You were unemployed and one wonders where the money came from to hire it.
"I regard your account that you were given the cannabis while visiting your grandmother and intended to return it as incapable of belief and I sentence you on the basis it would have been sold and you would have been given some for you own use as reward.
"You played a significant role and were motivated by the advantage of being supplied with some of the drug."
Mr Gordon Richings, prosecuting, said Latham was stopped heading South on the M5 near Tiverton and found with approximately two thirds of a kilogram of cannabis worth £6,795.
He said Latham told police he was acting as custodian rather than courier but his version is not accepted and it is believed the drugs were being transported to someone else who would sell them.
Mr Mark Jackson, defending, said the offence had not been planned and Latham had been asked to look after the drugs by an old friend he met when visiting his family in Sheffield.
He said he was not going to receive any financial reward but was told he could use a small amount of the drugs himself.
